There are many different and sometimes unusual jobs such as professional skull cleaners, road kill removal specialists and septic tank cleaners, to name a few.
My own father-in-law worked his way through college as a professional pallbearer and searched for treasure as a deep-sea diver after World War II.
Another unusual but rewarding occupation I recently came across is the professional grave groomer.
Visit any cemetery in America and you will see a large number of tomb stones covered with moss and lichens. Some are so bad you can’t even read the name of the deceased.
You wouldn’t think a heavy stone could be damaged but most are made out of limestone which can indeed be broken when heavy rains sweep dirt out from underneath them or vandals tip them over.
Some grave markers can slowly sink into the ground over time. Grass stains from lawn mowers and tree sap also disfigures them.
I recently watched a grave groomer clean a monument covered with moss. I expected to see a high pressure washer, small hoists and heavy duty jacks inside his van but there was just a twenty five gallon water tank with a long hose and a large assortment of plastic scrapers, brushes, scrubbing pads, special epoxy’s and very mild chemicals.
It looked like most of the work involved good old elbow grease and a strong back. He had the tombstone looking very nice after just thirty minutes of work. He also places flowers on graves for people who can’t get to the cemetery and takes a picture of them for the customer.
People who have small family cemeteries will occasionally hire a grave groomer to clean up the stones, wax them, right any fallen monuments and put broken ones back together. Cemeteries will sometimes pay them to work on very old stones of the deceased who have no living family members so the grave yard looks better.
It doesn’t look to me like it would take very much money to get into this type of business. You would certainly have a peaceful and serene setting to work in and plenty of business. A google search for grave groomers might turn up a franchise.
