Every year at Memorial Day in Cincinnati, there is a procession of people who come to the grave of The Gypsy Queen at Spring Grove Cemetery. They come at a very early hour and leave before the public appears, and they offer mounds of expensive flowers, sayings written on little scrolls, prayers and the like at the tomb said to be that of a Gypsy Queen. She was a larger than life sort of person, with extreme passions and tastes. Her perfume reflects that. Masses of gorgeous expensive flowers, combined with a bit of the clove cigarettes she smoked, a deep base of darkest musk which is more oriental and earthy rather than European, a bit of vetiver (but just a tiny bit) and a puff of incense. There is also the small smell of cards in here, their pasteboard pictures being so much a part of her heritage. You would not expect a Queen of the Gypsies to be buried in Cincinnati, but remember that being a gypsy means roaming where your heart pleases. This is a dry and sophisticated blend, strong and slightly unconventional.
The image is what is thought to be a carving from one of the gypsy graves. There are other ones of: horses, horseshoes, lucky clovers and thistles. As a whole they are modest headstones, and you have to ask a great many questions and follow a lot of trails before you find them. They are quite famous in Cincinnati and have become more talked about over the last 5 years or so, so much that they are becoming a local legend.
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