Headstone


Dear Jo,

At long last, I went up to Ecclesall churchyard this morning with the intention of sprucing up your Uncle Ken and Auntie Doris's gravestone. It was a bright, dry day and not too chilly for December 2nd.

I guess that a couple of years have passed by since I last went up to see it and I was pretty shocked with what I saw. What had once been a clear, creamy white headstone was now blackened with fungal growth. I could hardly read the inscription.

In my bag, I had brushes, cloths, kitchen cleaner and two milk containers filled with warm soapy water. I got on with the job but it soon became clear that a lot of the fungal growth would not budge.
There was certainly significant improvement but I was not satisfied.

Back home, I checked out a couple of YouTube videos about cleaning gravestones and realised that I would need some kind of special stone cleaning fluid or spray to complete the job to the best of my ability.

Research led me to the discovery that I could only buy the necessary spray off the shelf at Williamsons in Broomhill. I phoned them to confirm this and I will be heading up to Broomhill on the Number 6 bus tomorrow morning as it is so hard to park a car at Broomhill these days.

By the way, in a strange co-incidence, just as I was about to set off to the graveyard this morning, the postman brought me your Christmas card - all the way from New Zealand! Thank you so much!

I hope that you and Keith are in good health just now and no doubt looking forward to yet another Christmas - perhaps with your family. Please see the two attached "before" and "after" photos but I hope that the next picture I send you will evidence an even bigger transformation.

Ken and Doris were such a sweet old couple and I was privileged to be able to help them as they reached the ends of their lives. As I scrubbed at their headstone this morning, I swear I could hear them singing folk songs beneath the turf.
Kind regards,
Neil


from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/YR2rCyX

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