With federal money, a municipality called Metro Parks is refurbishing the Tacoma recreational resource, Wright Park. Because she is a master at the concrete, local celebrity artist Lynn Di Nino was hired to repair the Lady in the Lake. Once there lived on the unnamed island located on the unnamed pond in Wright Park, a Greek-looking statue all white and symbolic of some unnamed thing. Unless you were on the island, this sculpture was hard to tell apart from the other two at the Division Avenue end of the park. This mysterious woman is also known as the Fisherman’s Daughter, and she stood for 115 years before recently being vandalized in the arm and face.



No one has any concrete information on the vandals, but I can imagine they were not over the age of 55 and they were probably armed with hard whacking-type tools. Maddened by recent changes in the weather, they saw the fish holding homage to some unknown god as an offensive standard they could no longer tolerate. “These idols will mock us no more!” they shouted over the fence and onto the island. At the last minute they laid down their tools and went after the old girl mano y mano, to keep it fair.

Bits of her face and arm were lost into the shallow, gross, brown water below until heroic construction workers resurrected them during the recent re-pond.



Arthurian Legend tells of a Lady of the Lake. Her father was not a fisherman, to my knowledge, but she somehow fished up Excalibur out of the murky depths and thrust it up to King Arthur lest he be left without a weapon as he continued his adventures. She was also in some legends an island dweller, residing on an island called Avalon, which is supposed to be the final resting place of Arthur. After his aggravating battle with Mordred, he returned to the lady to recover from his wounds but accidentally died instead.



In the legend of Tacoma, it is the Lady in the Lake, returning to the island to recover from her wounds. The  new concrete that Di Nino has sculpted will continue to dry and harden for 25 years. The Lady once again holds her fish, Escaleabur, waiting no longer for her hero, for Di Nino has already come. Weighing in at over 400 lbs makes it difficult to move around, but Di Nino says they are building a temporary bridge to the island (of Avalon) lest they lose her in the murky depths once again. You may go and greet your new goddess on May 10, when the park celebrates its new looks.



[Wright Park, Saturday, May 10, Third and Division Avenue, Tacoma, 253.305.1054]