On Halloween morning, dozens of people gathered at a local cemetery — not for trick-or-treating, but to tend to the dead.
Metro, the regional government that oversees public parks throughout Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties, invited the public to help them maintain the marked graves of those laid to rest at the Columbia Pioneer Cemetery.
Armed with butter knives, chopsticks, brushes and rags, volunteers stooped over headstones to wipe them clean of lichen and mud. The oasis of green is a calm island amid the bustle of traffic along Sandy Boulevard and the nearby I-5 freeway…