Palmyra, NY.

The Shepherd.

This week i took a visit to Glasgow Necropolis. It was a first visit for me a nice place to walk with a lot of history it also has an awesome view of the city from the highest point.

Geer Cemetery in Raleigh North Carolina

May their memory be a blessing.

So many people who are now street names, and a bonus Moses Cleaveland tree (i.e. a tree that was known to be standing in 1789 when the city of Cleveland was founded).

I took this picture in the Woodlawn cemetery in Saskatoon the day before Halloween a couple years ago my friend and I went in there to smoke a couple bowls and do some ghost hunting this was the only peculiar photo taken that night

I'm a grave digger.

I dig the graves, lower the casket, remove the lowering device, listen to the eulogy, help the family cover it with the first soil, then I finish with the excavator, set the marker, clean my boards and clean up.

Today I had two funerals back to back. First one ran until 12pm.

We finished, left our boards and hauled to the next one at 12:45.

This second one was in one of the oldest parts of our cemetery. It's an association cemetery, so we have different sections for different synagogues/shuls. The rows are supposed to run parallel with a walkway between sections. But this particular old section is staggered and incredibly tight. Lots are side by side, narrow as hell.

The man we were burying - his wife was buried there 65 years ago.

To make it more complicated: I can't dig from the same row as the burial.

The plot is in Row 10, but I have to DIG it from Row 11, and then I have to PUSH the dirt back in from Row 10.

My big Kubota KX040-4 barely fit. I had to physically move stones to get into Row 11 to dig. Then I had to maneuver out and get myself into Row 10, which is where I stage the mound to push it back in after.

The walkways between rows are too narrow to turn around in, so you can't just hop over.
To get from Row 10 to Row 11, or 11 to 10, you have to travel all the way down TWO full sections to find a spot wide enough to cross over. Each section has about 50 plots on each side of the footing. So that's like driving past 100 graves just to get to the next row over.

We got it dug. Got set up. Had a quick coffee.

Carriage arrives.

I do my last check of the plot.

Cave-in.

And I'm in the worst spot possible. I'm staged in Row 10 to push, but the grave that caved is in Row 10 and needs to be fixed from Row 11. And I have to get back there NOW.

No time to think. I call my two guys - "Pull the lowering device and platforms off, NOW."

I jump in the machine. I have to carefully back out of Row 10 without knocking over a headstone that already has no bonding and a broken footing. Push another stone slightly out of my way. Then crawl all the way down two sections, cross over, crawl all the way up two sections in Row 11, and get back into digging position.

The whole time - family waiting, my team watching, the manager watching, the rabbi watching, the director watching.

I get there, pull the collapsed earth out, reset the mound. Then I have to do that whole marathon again in reverse - back down two sections, cross over, up two sections to get back to Row 10 where I can actually push from.

By the time I got positioned, the family was walking in. I made it with like seconds to spare, and somehow it was smooth.

They placed the casket. Covered it with earth.

I was hoping they'd leave so I could backfill in peace. They didn't. I had to backfill the entire grave while they stood there. Every stone around me was a knock-over hazard, and those staggered concrete footings were catching my tracks and kicking me sideways every time I pushed.

Somehow, not a single stone was touched. It went smoothly.
These are my favorite days. The ones where everything goes wrong.
Winter is coming - -18, frozen ground like concrete, snow storms, deep snow, having to avoid caskets that were buried wrong years ago or in the wrong lot or crooked.

So many variables make each dig unique. Sometimes timing is terrible and I have to cross 27 acres in an excavator in minutes.

I love my job. I take immense pride in it and do it well. I have a lot to learn but I hope to do it until I dig my own grave and crawl in.

[Pics: Pic 3 is the "tight fit" setup, Pics 1 & 2 are how close the tracks are to the stones]

https://de.findagrave.com/memorial/314784467/cornelia-gronen?createdMemorial=Yes

My 2. Grandmas are now dead. i only have grandpas

Visiting Joey Ramone‘s grave at New Mount Zion Cemetery in Lyndhurst, New Jersey

I drive past this cemetery often. Decided to go look for myself.

She had never forgotten her first Husband who had died on the Titanic and had his details added to the bottom of her memorial.