Bedford, Ohio -- John Walters loves the feeling he gets from fixing up aging gravestones. "It's like you're saving history and artwork from more than 100 years ago," he said. "It seems like you are righting a wrong. "So many times, you look at the surnames on the graves and then look at the nearby roads - roads that were named after these people, They are the people who carved out this area." Walters, a gravestone restorer, was summoned to work at Bedford Cemetery during the last full week in June. "It can be slow, pains-taking work," Walters said.
Walters, who calls himself the "Graveyard groomer," came at the request of Janet Caldwell, director of the Bedford Historical Society. She encountered Walters, who was teaching at a workshop last year, and realized how he could upgrade the cemetery on Broadway Avenue."He is a national expert," she said.
Walters got interested in fixing gravestones while working for the cemetery department in Fayette County in Indiana. "I fell in love with graveyards," he said. "I discovered a passion. I convinced them that they needed to do more with graveyards than mow the grass." Walters, 52, started his own business a dozen years ago. Three years ago, he took on Kelly Luke, 36, as an assistant. They are old friends from Connorsville, Ind. They travel throughout Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois during the non-winter months. When it rains, they erect a tent-like shelter and keep working.
"Each time, I am working on someone's family stone," Luke said. "It's a great feeling to fix them up. These were the pioneers of the area."
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