Description of our work (2000-2005):

A large mulberry bush was growing up into the Lyon's family burial site. The roots were so thick that they had grown up into this stone's base, pushing the stone over and breaking both it and the base into several pieces. The roots had grown in a way that the bottom portion of the stone was actually enmeshed into them, and we weren't sure we were going to be able to get the roots out without breaking the bottom of the stone. However, little by little we cut and worked them out. The bush looked as though it had spread from the mulberry bush we cut down from the Jeff and Cordie Ward stone in Row 15.

Although the bottom part of the stone was at the grave, we could not find any more pieces of it for two summers. We finally found the rest of the stone at the front of the cemetery propped on another base. It was broken into four pieces, with fairly clean breaks. We were not sure just what we were going to do with this stone, but we cleaned all of the pieces. They had a lot of black discoloration on them; however, they cleaned up fairly well.

After looking for this stone and working with it for three summers, we decided to try putting the entire stone back together. We poured a new base for this stone and reset the bottom portion in this base on a bed of gravel and sand. As we dug the ground out for this base, we discovered several tree roots which we sprayed with weed killer. The base was set on a bed of gravel and sand. We had never glued a stone back together that was broken into so many pieces; however, the breaks were clean, and it seemed to fit tightly together. The pieces were glued with Barre-Pak and secured with clamps until they dried. The bottom two were done first, then when they were completely dried, the top two were done. This picture was taken right after we glued the stone back together and before the composite work was done.

I filled in the cracks of this stone with a composite mixture of Barre-Pak and ground marble. This was done very gradually and took two summers to complete. It is our sincere hope that this stone will stay together well. It was such a pretty stone, we just wanted to try saving it. The other picture of Ann's stone, posted by Cari Dale, was taken after the work was completed.