The Story Begins...

I ran into a friend in town the other day and told him about the new gravestone cleaning business I’ve started. I even handed him one of my shiny new business cards—more on that in a minute.

He mentioned that he and his wife try to get out once or twice a year to clean his mother’s headstone. Then he said the word that made me shudder: bleach. I quickly told him he shouldn’t be using that.

Why You Should Never Use Bleach on a Headstone

In the gravestone restoration world, the go-to product is called D/2 Biological Solution. It’s a biological cleaner  that won’t harm the stone—or the surrounding plants and wildlife. I pay about $46 per gallon (plus shipping), but if you’re just cleaning one or two family stones, a quart runs just under $20.

I truly can’t sing the praises of this product loud enough—it’s a total game changer.

If you can’t or don’t want to hire me to clean your ancestral gravestones, please consider purchasing D/2 or a similar environmentally safe headstone cleaner—especially in rural New Hampshire, where many of us rely on clean well water. Bleach might make something look clean in the short term, but it can cause lasting damage to both the stone and the environment.

The Business Card Debacle

Now, about those business cards...

I was wicked excited to get this business off the ground and start telling people how transformative it is to see a family gravestone restored to dignity. In my rush, I left an S out of my email address when preparing marketing materials.

I had over 500 business cards printed and had already handed out more than 100 before I noticed the mistake—at 9:30 last night. And of course, I had a sales meeting this morning with a gentleman who maintains a private cemetery in Laconia.

So, I spent the night “fixing up” enough cards to bring to the meeting and placed a rush order for corrected ones. It reminded me of that line from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll:

“The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.”

If you’re starting a new business, here’s my advice: slow down, take a breath, and ask your most persnickety friend to proofread everything before you send anything to print.

Preserve Your Family’s Legacy—The Right Way

If you want your mother’s headstone cleaned, fill out the contact form  at SacredStonesNH.com. Or, if you prefer the DIY route, pick up a bottle of D/2 and learn to do it yourself the right way.

But please—don’t use bleach.

About the Photo

The picture above doesn’t really relate to this story although there is a gallon of D/2 in the right foreground with the label turned away from the camera—but I couldn’t resist including it. It’s my friend Aime Jacques on one of our first volunteer headstone cleaning days in Grafton, New Hampshire. I had just taught her what I’d learned from the New Hampshire Old Graveyard Association, and she dove right in.

I miss Aime immensely; she embodied the spirit of what Sacred Stones is all about: taking something forgotten or overlooked and bringing it from neglect to respect. 

Ready to restore dignity to your family’s gravestones?
Visit SacredStonesNH.com/contact to request a professional cleaning or, learn more about doing it yourself—the right way. Your ancestors deserve better than bleach.