LYNCHBURG, Va. – Lennie Dudley and John Mason are retired and spent their Wednesday in a shed, cleaning up vandalism at Lynchburg’s Old City Cemetery.
“It’s kind of sad that people would go into a cemetery and disrespect the people that are buried there,” said Dudley.
“I wonder how people can be so stupid. I feel like there’s a great lack of common sense in this world today,” said Mason.
Police say three tombstones in the Confederate section were broken last month; a bronze nameplate was stolen from a Revolutionary War soldier’s gravesite, and writing was etched into a podium.
“Old City Cemetery is property of everybody that lives in this area. Everybody that lives in this area needs to take care of this property,” said Mason.
In fact, the two have been helping to take care of the property for more than a decade.
They come every week to repair tombstones, which they say are usually broken by groundskeepers or the weather accidentally.
Mason, a Vietnam veteran, says it all started in 2006 when he saw an ad for a workshop.
“I signed up and attended that three-week program and ended up staying. So, I’ve been here ever since,” said Mason.
He later recruited Dudley, and they’ve fixed hundreds of stones since.
Denise McDonald, the cemetery’s executive director, says the volunteers are a huge help.
“I just can’t thank our volunteers enough. They have made all the difference for us,” said McDonald.
Following the recent attack, the group already returned one of the repaired stones back to its gravesite.