Let’s pause here and acknowledge the obvious: This is the sort of thing that earns Los Angeles its la-la-land reputation. But you’re seeing dead people.Or, rather, tributes to dead people. This is a showy cemetery, a place where people flaunt the wealth or celebrity they achieved before moving in. Just getting to the Fairbanks Lawn requires you to pass through acres of loss. A typical one is the inscription gracing the tomb of James Bernard Hollander, a film editor and cinephile who died in 2019 at age 73, describing him as having “a humor and spirit that cannot be contained.” Nearby, the tomb for “Goddess Robin Victoria Gallagher,” who left the Earth on April 16, 2020, at age 65, adds this admonition: “Deal with it.”Įven if you do yoga with your eyes closed, there’s no mistaking the main purpose of the grounds. Others station themselves along the stone wall, underneath engraved messages to beloved fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters. Most of the attendees lay their mats along the rectangular reflecting pool leading from the Fairbanks tomb to the stone patio where Reymond presides.
