Long before thanatology (death and dying) courses in college, Tyson Gardner had a feeling for graveyards and cemeteries. A past board member of the Friends of Laurel Hill cemetery and sometime vice-president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Victorian Society in America, he has made Philadelphia his adopted home since 1998. He is now a volunteer guide for the American Institute of Architects and is a member of the Guide Advisory Committee for the Philadelphia Preservation Alliance. Tyson works for the city of Philadelphia as the ambassador docent for Historic Strawberry Mansion, one of the preserved eighteenth-century villas in the city's sprawling 4,000 acre Fairmount Park. He also lectures on park related topics, and has written two tours for the park, was well as short histories for two of the parks historic villas. His first book tells the story of his year living in the Central American country of Belize. Sweet Sadness is his second book.