Retired nurse preserves past by repairing tombstones

CHESTER COUNTY, Tenn. — Mike Alexander worked as a nurse for more than 30 years.

Now, he spends his time conserving, not restoring, tombstones.

“It’s only new one time,” Alexander said about tombstones. “You can repair them, and you can conserve them and help protect the integrity of the stone.”

Alexander’s daughter died nine years ago. That’s when he started looking into cleaning headstones.

“Fixing headstones and cleaning headstones, this goes hand-in-hand, and I want to get more into the repair side of things,” Alexander said.

So back in October, he traveled to Arkansas to learn the basics.

Since then, he’s repaired more than 40 grave markers in Chester County.

Alexander says each repair is different. A simple one might take him 30 minutes to fix, others can take three or even four days.

He starts each repair picking up the monuments off the ground, then checking the stability of the monuments.

Other repairs can take some manual labor.

“I had to dig the base out on this one. It took me about 45 minutes because it’s right here by an old cedar stump. That base probably weighs 100 pounds,” Alexander said.

And all the materials he uses are vetted and safe on the stone.

“Hopefully what I’ve done will be here 50-100 years, long after I’m gone,” Alexander said.

Alexander is now training two more people to become conservators in hopes they’ll pass it on to more people.