My Opa and a friend once dug a grave for a neighbour all night long. By hand, in the pouring rain. There was a large stone that couldn't be removed, so they widened the grave and kept digging. He went straight from the cemetery to the funeral Mass and told my uncle who brought his clean suit that "when there are machines to do this job, you're going to buy one." Unc did. He has dug graves for the past 40 years.

Please consider volunteering at a local cemetery or two! Many cemeteries, especially church cemeteries, are maintained by volunteers. My local cemetery is completely volunteer run and the grass cutter/tree trimmer/weed controller/leaf raker/stick remover is 78-years-old. The grave digger just retired...when he turned 80. Old stones are getting covered up in many cemeteries due to a lack of volunteers to keep those maintained. Help when you can! Spring and fall cleanup is a major job as well...trust me. I take tools and gloves to each cemetery I visit, and find some old flat stones that need to be saved for the future.

Many of the memorials I add do not have stones...they're based on obituaries or records I find. Many of them are mysteries for family members, so hopefully adding them is helpful. It's very surprising the number of graves without stones. Please don't add images of death certificates to my memorials.

Feel free to use my photos for personal projects.