Your parents are buried in a village in the Vinnytsia region and you have not been back in three years. Nobody is going to tell you the grass is waist high, and that is exactly what keeps you awake. This is what regular care actually involves, and what it costs you in effort, which is almost nothing.
What a visit includes
Clearing the plot
Cutting the grass, pulling out weeds, raking leaves, removing old wreaths and dead flowers, and carrying the rubbish off the cemetery rather than leaving it at the fence.
Washing the headstone
Removing dust, water stains and green film from the granite, cleaning the portrait and the lettering, wiping down the base. No harsh chemicals, which ruin the polish.
Flowers and the lamp
Planting or placing flowers, replacing the lamp, lighting a candle. If you ask, we do it on a specific date that matters to your family.
Small repairs
Straightening the fence, topping up and levelling the soil where the plot has sunk, tightening anything that has come loose.
How it works when you are a thousand kilometres away
You call, or you write on Viber or WhatsApp. You tell us the village, the cemetery and whose grave it is. If you cannot remember exactly where the plot is, describe the landmarks or send an old photograph. In a small village that is a matter of minutes.
We go, we do the work, and we send you photographs. Always two: how it looked before and how it looks after. That is not a formality. It is the only way for you to be certain the work was actually done rather than merely reported over the phone.
If we agree on regular care, you never have to remind us. We write to you before each visit and again after it.
How many visits a year make sense
Most families settle on four, and for this part of Ukraine that really is a sensible minimum.
In spring, before Provodna Nedilia, the memorial Sunday after Easter when the whole village comes to the cemetery on the same day. This is the important one. After winter the plot looks its worst, and this is when the most people will see it.
In summer, because grass in July grows faster than at any other time and a plot can disappear under it within a month.
In autumn, before the memorial Saturdays, to rake the leaves and clear what summer left behind.
Before Christmas, when many families ask for a lamp and flowers even if there is snow to the knee.
If the budget is tight, take two, spring and autumn. Those two carry most of the value. We also do one off visits with no obligation to continue.
A grave nobody has touched for years
This is a different job and we price it differently. When a plot has been left for ten years or more it is not cleaning, it is recovery: lifting the turf, digging out bushes that have grown through the fence, removing years of film from the stone, restoring the lettering, levelling ground that has sunk, sometimes resetting the fence itself.
We never quote this blind. We go first, photograph the state of it, name a figure, and only then start. Anyone who gives you a price over the phone without seeing it is guessing.
Families often feel ashamed at this point. Please do not. We have seen plots left far longer, in most cases because the person who used to care for them died and nobody abroad knew.
What we will not do
We do not change anything about the burial itself without the family agreeing: we do not move the headstone, we do not shift the boundaries of the plot, and we do not touch neighbouring graves. If the plot next door is overgrown and spoils the look of yours, we can only clear what hangs over your side.
We postpone work in rain and in hard frost. Cutting wet grass or washing granite below freezing achieves nothing, and we would rather tell you that than drive out for the sake of a photograph.
Fresh flowers last two or three days in summer heat. If you want the grave to look cared for longer, take artificial ones or a planting. We will tell you what suits that particular plot.
Paying from another country
We name the amount in hryvnia and you transfer it however suits you: through your own bank’s app, through a relative in Ukraine, or through a money transfer service. There is no advance payment for work you have not seen yet. Photographs first, payment after, if that is easier for you.
We do not publish a price list, because the figure depends on the state and size of the plot, the distance to the cemetery and what actually needs doing. We name the full sum before we start and it does not change afterwards.
Where we work
Our main area is the Dzhuryn community in the Zhmerynka district of the Vinnytsia region: Dzhuryn, Derebchyn, Khomenky, Zvedenivka, Holynchyntsi, Sapizhanka and the smaller villages around them. When needed we travel further, to Sharhorod and to the Chernivtsi district of the same region. This is the Chernivtsi district of Vinnytsia region, not the city of Chernivtsi in Bukovyna, which people often confuse.
If a headstone is still to come
A headstone is normally installed about a year after the burial, once the ground has settled. Installing it sooner risks the base shifting, and the work then has to be done again at your expense. If you are planning both the restoration of a plot and a new headstone, it is usually cheaper to do them in one go, and we will say so.
We can go and look first
The visit to inspect the plot and photograph its condition costs nothing. After that you decide.