HUDSON – Vietnam War veteran and longtime Hudson resident David Simpson dedicates his early mornings to cleaning and refurbishing his fellow veterans’ gravestones throughout cemeteries in town.
For the past two years, he has devoted numerous days to his craft of spraying, brushing and trimming each fallen soldier’s gravestone in Forestvale and Main Street cemeteries.
Simpson’s background in genealogy originally brought him to these cemeteries. He curates family trees for his friends and family, which requires an immense amount of background information, and the research includes identifying deceased family members from across the country.
In order to obtain this information, Simpson stumbled upon a website in which people can roam through cemeteries to take photographs of headstones and upload them for distant relatives to view. While working with the website, Simpson began to see how unkempt many veterans’ gravestones were. He decided to take matters into his own hands.
In Forestvale Cemetery alone, there are dozens gravestones dating from the Civil War to combat in Afghanistan.
“Over the years and through generations of families, sometimes people forget. Then after a while, there’s no family left to keep up with the maintenance. So this is something that I can do for them,” said Simpson.
Cleaning these graves takes a considerable amount of time and labor.
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Depending on the current state and age of the headstone, each grave can take up to an hour to fully clean. In pursuit of a fully-refurbished headstone, Simpson uses a varying set of tools, including small brushes to precisely clean the engraved lettering on the headstones, scrapers to remove encrusted algae and lichen, as well as a small grass trimmer for detailing. Each tool is made of plastic and used very cautiously by Simpson to ensure that no damage is done to these headstones.
The most important tool used by Simpson is a large spraying bottle filled with a chemical called D/2 Biological Solution. This solution is imperative to achieve not only a clean grave but also one that is long lasting. D/2 Biological Solution is a safe and effective way to prevent the regrowth of algae and lichen that riddles unkempt headstones.
Simpson not only prioritizes immediate refurbishment, but also refurbishment that will stand the test of time.
He has no plan to put a halt to his cleanings of these headstones anytime soon and f inds deep personal satisfaction amongst his work. He thoroughly appreciates being given the opportunity to pay respect to his fellow veterans.
“After finishing a headstone cleaning, I feel like I just paid that person I’ve never met before some respect. They were in the service like I was and I feel a bond with them. Whenever I’m done with the cleaning I always give them a salute,” said Simpson.
