May 31, 2012
Sean Scully
Nonna and Vsevolog Blinoff have traveled from San Francisco to Calistoga’s Pioneer Cemetery every year for decades to clean the graves of Ivan Dementy (1871-1941) and his wife Anna Dementy (1879-1953), even though the couples never met. Mrs. Blinoff said she discovered the overgrown graves many years ago and recognized them as fellow Russian Orthodox Church members by the distinctive crosses on the headstones. She maintains the graves as an act of devotion to her coreligionists. The couple spent Monday’s Memorial Day scraping moss and lichen from the tombs.
