Though most people take pride in remembering the contributions of war veterans through ceremonies and charity funds, the monuments that mark their very existences today are often neglected. A Florida man has made it his life mission to clean these forgotten tombstones, and he's uncovering the untold stories of America's war heroes in the process.
Andrew Lumish, who goes by the handle The Good Cemeterian, runs a full-time carpet and upholstery cleaning service in Tampa, and spends every Sunday - his one day off - tending to the numerous derelict veteran grave sites in the area. He first rinses the stones with water, then sprays them with an environmentally friendly chemical solution called D/2 and scrubs away decades of grime with a soft-bristle brush. By the time he finishes with them, the tombstones look good as new, even though some of them date back to the early 1900's.
After each restoration, Lumish posts before and after photos of the monuments on his Facebook page, and includes information he researches about the people resting beneath them. Not only does he beautify their graves, he keeps their memories alive, and he does it all out of the goodness of his heart.
