Digital Extra: The Station Fire

The monument to 28-year-old Abbie Hoisington will be dedicated this evening.

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, October 1, 2004

BY ALICE GOMSTYN
Journal Staff Writer

WARWICK -- A proud black stone stands at Abbie Hoisington's grave. Made of granite mined in Africa, it bears the etched likeness of her smiling face on one side and that of an angel on the other.

Below the angel, a quote from Hamlet: "Flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."

Abbie Hoisington, a young woman who believed in angels, was just 28 when she died -- a victim of The Station nightclub fire.

She deserved a monument like this, her mother said.

"My daughter was young -- that's why I want it to be special," Bonnie Hoisington said Monday.

The marker was installed last week. The Hoisingtons fought for months to get the stone they wanted because of a dispute over cemetery rules with the owners of Pawtuxet Memorial Park.

"If I can't do anything else for my daughter, this was just something I felt was appropriate," Bonnie Hoisington said.

The stone took more than eight weeks to make, according to Jason Laffredo, of Laffredo's Monumental Decor in Cranston. Laffredo did the lettering on the stone, but Abbie's likeness and the etching of the angel required a special trip to a custom sandblasting company in Vermont.

"It took quite a while," Laffredo said, but the stone "came out beautiful."

Bonnie Hoisington agrees.

"It's so pretty, I have to say," she said.

Then, she paused and took a breath.

"I don't want to say it was worth it."

A dedication ceremony for the headstone will take place today at the cemetery at 6 p.m.