A TikToker who uses her spare time to clean historic headstones and share the stories of those they commemorate is receiving millions of views… and it’s really satisfying to watch.
TikTok famous for tombstone beautification
In Bedford, Virginia, TikTok user Alicia Williams isn’t signing, dancing, posting cute puppy videos or baking. She’s sharing graveyard videos, showing the process of how she cleans old, seemingly forgotten headstones — and most of her clips have gone viral. At last check, one of her more popular videos had received almost 12 million views. — WSLS10
TOMBSTONE TIKTOK IS SURPRISINGLY UPLIFTING
Alicia Williams mesmerising TikToks are attracting attention around the world, and have even inspired copycat activity.
Bringing new life to an old cemetery, and cleaning gravestones, isn’t Williams’ day job, report WSLS10 News, but her love of genealogy and the need for a positive outlet turned her into quite the “good cemeterian.”
In Williams’ spare time, she enjoys walking through graveyards in the Bedford area, rejuvenating the moss-covered markers.
“This is what I love,” Williams said. “This is my passion.”
It’s a passion that, on a whim, she captured on video and posted to TikTok under her username, “ladytaphos.” Little did she know, that video would quickly go viral — viewed millions of times around the world. Continued below…
Source: WSLS10
Williams never expected to get this kind of response.
The headstone work started as a therapeutic outlet at a turbulent time in her life when she was going through a divorce.
“I took to it like a duck in water,” Williams said. “It was just something that I found that healed me and was helping me navigate through those really difficult situations.”
Thousands of viewers from around the world have commented about how calming it is to watch the process.
“It is soothing. There is something nice about watching a rejuvenation,” Williams said.
One of her most-watched videos is a tribute to a World War I Army veteran, Mr. Herbert Wheeler, who now has a fresh headstone, much more fitting for someone who has served his country.
There’s something very satisfying about hundreds of years of dirt being wiped clean, revealing a story long left untold.
Williams has always done this on a volunteer basis, but said she’s had people reach out asking to hire her to clean a loved one’s gravestone.
Her videos have also inspired a lot of people to take this up as a hobby, but Williams emphasised, it’s important to get permission always, and do your research on the proper way to clean off these types of headstones.
Williams said she uses D2 Biological Solutions to clean the stones, along with water. Never use a pressure washer, she added.
Source: WSLS10
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