The ongoing coronavirus outbreak and subsequent self isolation measures have forced many of us to get creative when it comes to passing the time at home.
Some people are rediscovering old hobbies; some are picking up new ones entirely. But for the most part, these activities generally only really serve to satisfy us and not many others.
However, one family is using their time in lockdown to do some good and are working together to clean up neglected headstones during their daily walks.
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Father-of-three Ryan van Emmenis from Cheshire, England, had the idea to start cleaning the stones last month when lockdown first began.
As he told the Surrey Comet , a friend had posted a photo online of their sister’s dirty grave, inspiring Ryan, who runs his own cleaning company, to do something about it. Once that headstone was clean, he decided to keep going.
“I thought ‘I can do this more’,” he said.
Using a little brush and some cleaning products, Ryan will devote time out of his day to scrub the dirt and grime off these neglected stones.
How much time he spends cleaning depends on size of the headstone, but he says that he usually spends about an hour or so on one per day, and it takes around three or four visits to really make it shine again.
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“You see results and you’re like ‘oh, this is great’ so I just wanted to keep doing it,” Ryan said.
Now his cleaning process has really picked up, thanks to three new eager helpers — his children.
Brooke, 12, Lana, four, and Larsson, three, have all picked up their own brushes to help dad Ryan in his quest to clean as many headstones as possible. And since he passes multiple churches during his daily walks with hundreds of stones in need of a serious clean, they’ve definitely got their work cut out for them.
Ryan said his children are already pros at making these headstones shine.
“It’s good for the children to learn a little bit of history but also respect their environment,” he said. “As young as they are, they can still get involved and they can still help. Obviously they don’t do the chemical side of things, but they can do the brushing.
“They’re quite good at it to be fair.”
He estimates that together, he and his three kiddos have polished around 20 headstones since lockdown began.
During their cleaning process, Ryan and his family makes sure that each headstone receives all the care and respect possible. After all, it’s not just a rock in the ground — it’s someone’s final resting place.
“You’ve got to be respectful of the fact that it’s someone’s family member, it’s someone’s memories,” he said. “You’ve got to make sure you’re using the right products and you’re being careful and delicate with it.
“Some of these headstones I’m cleaning are over 100 years old. And algae, moss etc can have a really negative impact on them so you’ve got to be really careful.”
Photos of the van Emmenis’ cleaning efforts have been making the rounds on social media and have gotten plenty of people’s attention.
“I had some feedback from people saying they were really grateful for what I’d done because it was family members and they hadn’t visited the grave for 20 years, they’d been unable too,” Ryan said. “Someone used the term ‘you’re bringing memories back to people’.”
When headstones are neglected, Ryan said, it’s easy to dismiss them and forget just what exactly they stand for.
“When a grave is dull and it’s got algae on it and you can’t read it, there’s nobody seems to give it much time if they don’t know the person,” he explained. “Once you’ve cleaned up one of these graves, it’s really noticeable, which means people are stopping and taking a moment to read and remember these people.”
Thankfully, Ryan and his family are making an effort to make those headstones, as well as the real people they’re memorializing, shine once again.
h/t: Surrey Comet
