Who We Are

Every month, Florida resident Linda Lakes is able to place flowers on her late husband's cemetery plot, clean off debris from the headstone, and use an edger to make it look picture-perfect. The catch is that his tomb is in Pennsylvania and Linda does not have to leave home to do this. Sound too good to be true? It's not, thanks to Graveside Caretakers concierge service, Lakes, 66, uses the service to tend to her late husband's grave site, and those of her late parents and in-laws, all of whom are buried in Center Township. For a monthly fee, a Graveside Caretaker not only delivers flowers and details to each memorial, they take digital before-and-after photos and reports the time of service along with the temperature and weather conditions at the cemetery. All of this information is emailed to Lakes. It provides her with the peace of mind that her loved ones' final resting places are being personally taken care of. "We'd go back [to Center Township]. The grave was in a privately owned cemetery," she said of past visits with her son to her late husband's gravesite. "The cemetery landscaped the property well enough. But, the cemetery just doesn't have enough funds to take optimum care of each individual grave. They just take care of it the best they can. If we lived there, I would take clippers and go do it. "Based in SW Pennsylvania, Graveside Caretakers was founded by the management team at Union Cemetery, Monaca, PA in 2014. The idea for the business came to them suddenly on Mother's Day, when noting the many visiting families. "Cemeteries are in the business of providing general maintenance, such as mowing the grass, refuse removal, and street and curb repair. As a general rule, they are not able to individually address the details that family members are concerned with.  Whether the services or products that customers purchase are elaborate or simple grooming, it's not just people like Lakes, who have moved away from a loved one's burial place, who use grave site concierge services. It's also great for people who no longer drive, have trouble getting around, or have difficulty leaving retirement communities, long-term care, and assisted living facilities. "Sometimes you'll have people who aren't physically able to go out and do it," Some of Union's families hire Graveside Caretakers for a one-time service, while others opt for seasonal or monthly service. With the advent of digital photos (many grave site concierges services send print photos upon request), hiring such a service is the next best thing to actually visiting the tomb. And in the lives of many, visiting and maintaining a loved one's burial place are paramount activities. "The business of grave site concierge services is very much in line with what people care about and feel in their heart," said psychologist and author Dr. Keith Ablow. "There's a reason why we take such care in choosing caskets and gravestones. It's a way of staying attached to the memory of that person. These services allow you to feel as though you're doing something to honor them."

Catherine Jackson hired Graveside Caretakers to place a wreath on her late niece's Headstone last winter in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. "It was Christmas season," the Florida resident recounted, and the young woman had a November birthday, "so I needed to find a way to remember her." The holiday sentiment was a hit. "The whole family loved it," she smiled. "I'm the godmother, so I wanted to do something very special." After the wreath was placed, Jackson received a digital photo of the freshly decorated plot. She still has that photo saved on her computer. Positive customer feedback from customers such as Jackson and Lakes are common for Graveside Caretakers.  "When people learn about what we do, there's just disbelief,"

"We never knew this service even existed."