Blossom, a resident of Goose at Riverside Cemetery in Marshalltown, Iowa, was heartbroken and lonely. After her friend, Bud, died in the summer of 2022, she spent hours staring at her own reflection in the shiny sample tombstones outside the main office.
“She was so very lonely,” says the cemetery’s general manager, David Shearer, 61.
“We thought, ‘She needs a partner,'” says Dorie Tammen, 68, the cemetery’s former general manager. “I really didn’t think we’d have any trouble finding it for her.”
Tammen wrote a “personal” ad for Blossom, posting it on the cemetery’s Facebook page on February 10, 2023, indicating that Blossom was looking for companionship and “occasional shenanigans”.
Meanwhile, about an hour away in Runnells, Iowa, a goose named Frankie recently lost the love of her life. His friend was sitting on their eggs when “something grabbed her,” says Deb Hoyt, 66, executive director of Healing Hearts with Horses.
Frankie was also heartbroken. “He was alone and just lonely,” says Hoyt.
Hoyt saw Riverside’s Facebook post and immediately reached out to Tammen. She brought Frankie to meet Blossom on Valentine’s Day 2023 — but it didn’t quite go as planned.
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When they got to the cemetery, Hoyt opened the dog house she was carrying Frankie in and he left.
“He was mad and flew off,” says Hoyt. In fact, the goose flew all the way across the cemetery lake and disappeared.
“We searched and searched and searched and couldn’t find him. It was raining and cold and I was devastated. I was so broken. My husband was heartbroken too. I ask myself, ‘What were we thinking? We are idiots! Why did we do this? He’s probably dead somewhere,’ Hoyt recalls.
Widow geese find love in an Iowa cemetery.
Riverside Cemetery
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The next morning, Hoyt was lying in bed praying when Tammen called her with the good news: Frankie had been found, the birds were introduced, and they fell in love instantly.
“They saw each other and it’s been love ever since,” says Hoyt, adding, “We went to visit him a few times.”
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The couple now spend their days wandering the large park-like grounds, swimming in the two-acre cemetery’s Woodmere Lake. They are joined by ducks, two swans and other Chinese geese. “They fit into our menagerie,” says Shearer. “They are having fun. They are just happy.”
Cemetery employees share updates about the “lovebirds” on Facebook, posting photos of them napping, sunbathing, snacking or a video like this couple taking a “romantic walk in the rain.”
“They never leave each other,” says Tammen. Although he is retired, he lives three blocks from the cemetery and often walks his dog on the property.
“It obviously made Blossom happy,” she says. “They are always together. They never separate.”
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Source: HIS Education