Flat markers at cemeteries have sunken over the years but Harold Sonnenberg has undertaken an effort to raise them up.
The superintendent at Greenwood Cemetery in Waterford said he was approached one day by someone who said their family marker was disappearing.
“I dug around, prayed it up and put dirt under it,” he shared. “A short time later someone else approached me with the same problem.”
The Greenwood Cemetery board decided that something needed to be done so family markers weren’t lost.
“This is a dilemma that faces all cemeteries,” Sonnenberg said. “They are slowly sinking out of sight.
“I’ve come across some that were completely overgrown and if I didn’t tap my shovel, I wouldn’t have even known they were there.”
Using pry bars and weights, Sonnenberg lifts the stones – weighing several hundred pounds – until he can move dirt beneath it.
“I’ve done several hundred in the last two summers,” he said. “There would be literally thousands in this cemetery. I’ve hardly made a tooth.”
The superintendent acknowledged that upright grave markers are more popular these days, but people do still opt for flat markers.
One of the most notable upright stones at Greenwood Cemetery bears the name of Birney H. Groom and several of his family members whose roots traced back to Waterford.
Born in Michigan in 1899 and having died in 2001 in California, Groom’s life spanned three centuries and two millennia.
“A nephew of the family from San Francisco kept their remains from 1950, 1974, and 2001,” Sonnenberg explained. “When they were all gone, he brought them all here at once and we buried the three sets of ashes together.
“They were from all over America but came back to Waterford. I see a lot of this. People want to come home.”