East Lothian good samaritans clean local graveyards after council cuts
| Published date | 21 June 2022 |
Jordan first became involved in the funeral industry as a piper after leaving the armed forces which he had joined as a teen.
He was later joined by his brother and the pair say that they enjoy the community spirit and ethos that underpins the delivery of funeral services.
But since starting their new roles, they noticed that some cemeteries were looking a touch worse for wear and they decided that they wanted to help the local authority, East Lothian Council, to maintain them.
Jordan says that they have no interest in criticising a council that they work alongside every day and that he says "are having to dig around ten burial plots."
Instead the brothers have focused their efforts on being proactive and using their weekends to clean up graveyards where many of their clients have been buried in the recent past.
Jordan added that this shows their commitments to looking after their customers and their families even when they are placed in their eternal resting place.
On taking it upon themselves to clean cemeteries in Ormiston, Tranent and Musselburgh, Jordan said: "It is just a thing that we started to do on our weekends in order to give back to our community.
"People often complain online about the state of cemeteries but we thought rather than complain, we wanted to get involved.
"It is rewarding for us and does not take a lot of work to be honest. It involves a bit of general tidying up, cutting weeds back and cleaning graves.
"Some of the graves we look after are relatives of those we have served. We aim to look after people in their final moments, during their funeral and want to continue to do that in their final resting places.
"Family members will see us doing it and it highlights to the community that if we are cleaning up the graveyards, then it shows we will look after them during our day job.
"We have been messaged by a few elderly people in the community who maybe have mobility issues but want to help out, whether it is cleaning the grave of a loved one or helping in general. We will give them a lift up with us and it is good because maybe they don't get the chance to socialise much.
"Our own family have been getting involved with our kids coming to help out as well.
"We think it is a good message for them, to understand what a cemetery is and to gain a belief that...
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