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Volunteer Work in the |
They have limited funds for maintenance, and their policy is that maintenance of graves is the responsibility of the families of the deceased.
You can see the Empress Cemetery Bylaw (2018-08), here, or on the Village website.
This website (EmpressCemetery.ca), is not associated with The Village of Empress
I am Bruce A. Johnson in Empress, Alberta, Canada and here is what I am doing, plan to do, and want to do, in the Empress Cemetery. If you have any ideas for me, or would like to help me, please contact me.
Anyone can do volunteer work in the cemetery and they don't need to contact me or the Village about it.
Spring Work Bee
Let's resurrect the tradition of a spring "work bee" in the Cemetery.
It would happen right after the Village cuts the grass the first time in the spring. We would pick up garbage and trim the grass around the graves using push mowers and trimmers.
Safety concerns:- Rocks get thrown up by mowers & trimmers, so those using power equipment should:
- Wear long pants,
- Wear eye and/or face protection,
- Work away from all others.
- No picking up trash without wearing gloves, especially broken glass.
| Equipment & Supplies: While there might be some organization for some things, but everyone should expect to bring their own stuff: |
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Trees & Bushes
The trees & bushes that have overgrown graves have been cut back. I also dug out dirt and duff from graves under these trees to uncover the grave covers, moving the dirt to fill in other graves that are sunken.
The work left to do is digging up and chopping off roots to try to stop growth where it is not wanted. It is difficult and boring.
Headstone Repair
I have repaired three broken headstones and remounted two headstones that had fallen over.
There are several headstones not attached to their bases, but not in danger of falling over. I'll secure them with adhesive and sealer in 2026.
There are 5 headstones that have fallen over and are too heavy to lift by hand. Their bases need to be levelled & prepared before they can be joined. One headstone base needs to be jackhammered to disconnect it from the grave cover before the base can be levelled. Hopefully the other 4 will not need that!
I have:
- Tripod hoist & straps for lifting the stones.
- Tools & materials for cleaning/preparing the surfaces of the headstones & bases, and to relevel the bases (except a jackhammer).
- Adhesive and sealer.
Need:
- Someone with a Jackhammer to disconnect one headstone base from a grave cover.
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Marking unmarked graves
I want to mark currently unmarked graves with something that the mowers can't destroy, and which are non-religious.
| There are: |
23 graves with at most a wooden stake (something I did in 2025). 12 people in 11 graves with temporary markers that are older than 2 years. 114 people in 104 graves with white crosses. 6 graves with white crosses & a blank stone. |
I've given up on my previous idea to use large rounded stones because of the labour involved, and the results would not look as good as Concrete Headstones (Details on its own webpage).
I'm still trying to think of a cheap and easy way to permanently mark unmarked graves.
Headstone Cleaning
Never use a pressure washer on a headstone! It will damage the stone, and not just old stones. The high pressure water forces its way between layers of stone (delamination), like the outer layer and what's under it in the engravings, flaking the stone and causing cracks or pits. Even tiny, almost invisible cracks will hold water. The freezing and thawing of the water in the winter will make the cracks larger. So a tiny defect can get larger with the years. Remember, cemetery headstones are supposed to last 100 years or more.
Most of my cleaning is to remove lichen. I'm using:
- Scrapers, scrubbers and brushes made of plastic or wood. Plastic razor blades (Amazon Canada, Amazon USA). Bamboo BBQ skewers.
- Orvus Paste Soap, a safe cleaner recommended, though it doesn't kill the lichen. It is commonly used to clean old quilts and as a horse shampoo. I have one 3.4 kg jug (7.5 pounds), which is going a loooooooooong way. I won't need to ever buy it again!
- D/2 Biological Solution kills algae, lichen, moss, fungi, etc. This is the cleaner most recommended by Cemetery Conservators for United Standards because it doesn't damage headstones, but it is very expensive and hard to get. I'm now only spraying it on the headstone after I've cleaned it, to kill the any remaining lichen. It soaks into the stone, protecting it from lichen for some time afterward. It will run out soon, and I'm unsure about buying more because it is very expensive, and there is only one supplier in Canada, all the way out in Ontario.
There is a new product that is an alternative to D/2, and it costs less ... if you live in northeastern USA. Shipping cost to Alberta is 3 times the cost of 1 gallon of the product, not including any tariffs that might be involved (d#mn you Trump). So the cost would be more than D/2. What a shame.
Filling Sunken Graves
I have done this occasionally, especially when I had dirt to move, but haven't done much of it yet. I'm not keen on using my small garden wagon to move large amounts of dirt.
Levelling Gravestones & Covers
There is a need for this, but I'm not planning this anytime soon except for the fallen headstones.
Empress, Alberta, Canada