Volunteers gathered on Friday at Fairview Cemetery in Lacombe to give a large number of headstones some new shine. (City of Lacombe)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

taking care of those who've passed

Cleaning headstones at Lacombe’s Fairview Cemetery a “remarkable” experience

Aug 22, 2020 | 1:20 PM

Thanks to the City of Lacombe’s Perpetual Care Trust Fund, Fairview Cemetery was given a little TLC on Friday.

Around 15 volunteers and a handful of City Parks staff came out to help clean headstones, a process that isn’t as simple as it sounds. Biological solutions are utilized, and volunteers even use bamboo skewers to get into tight spots like letters and numbers.

Maureen MacKenzie, Community Services executive assistant, says many headstones need a lot of work given how long they’ve been around.

“Headstones are historical records of our citizens that lived in and around Lacombe. The really old ones have lichen and moss on them, which happens naturally with granite and marble,” MacKenzie explains. “Sometimes families can’t find a headstone because of that growth, so this helps them be able to do that easier. It’s really nice to be able to clean them up.”

(City of Lacombe)

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This is the first time the City has had a group do this since the trust fund was established in 2012, notes MacKenzie. The fund, which collects fees when people purchase plots or niches, also allows for certain monuments which have become loose to be restored.

“It certainly can be moving, especially with monuments that are for children,” she adds. “There was one young girl — a volunteer — who’s probably nine or 10, and she really focused on those children’s headstones. She wanted to know their stories.”

MacKenzie calls seeing that and the generosity of other volunteers to spend their time cleaning headstones, “remarkable.”

The crew that went out Friday had 120 markers pegged for cleaning, with more work planned for September.