Gravedigger talks life, death and E.T.

Feb 09, 10 Photo source: Google Maps

By JOSH STIPANOVICH and GARY ANGELO

Audio story broadcast by WYSU on Dec. 7, 2009

Download Gravedigger talks life, death and E.T. (MP3)

A man who has spent 31 years digging the graves of others has decided that he wants to be cremated.

David Smith, foreman of Calvary Cemetery on the city’s west side, said he believes burial ceremonies are too hard on families.

“I think a lot of people think more of cremation now. That would probably make me think of some of the stuff I’ve seen out here over the years…it’s a little bit easier especially on the families. It hasn’t changed much of my mind.” Smith said.

Smith whose job is to dig up holes for caskets, cut the grass around the cemetery’s 133-acre breadth and dig up and move the occasional casket, has acquired some wisdom about death and dying through his years of watching others come to terms with it.

He has concluded that people are “weird”, death is inevitable and life is worth clinging to for as long as possible.

On a recent sunny afternoon, Smith directed a group of his employees to three separate plots throughout the cemetery, for there were three scheduled burials that day. The calm, silent, strange sense of comfort ability wisped through the air as the men dug and constructed the three holes, knowing that they were creating a new home for the three newest residents of Calvary Cemetery.

The peaceful location at 248 Belle Vista Avenue might be a constant reminder of death, but it doesn’t hold Smith back from telling the stories to back up his belief that the living are more weird than those he takes care of each and everyday.

“Today we had a removal…you take [the body] from one place and they want somebody put somewhere else. This was the second time for this guy…we already moved him once,” Smith said. “So I don’t know if it means the old lady didn’t like him too much, and she just keeps moving him from section to section, but to us it’s weird,” he added. Smith added he gets the occasional customer who demands that they have their loved one moved to Italy and other countries outside of the United States.

Also in the weird category, Smith uses the common practice of people placing trinkets on gravesites.

He said he has seen everything from birthday cakes, bottles of beer, shots of alcohol, money and even notes. “The weirdest is food, or nice cards [such as] ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ or ‘Father’s Day’, and they write a note and sign it. To me, if you’re dead, you’re dead,” Smith said.

Smith said some people cannot accept death. “We have people that come out here maybe two, three times a day to visit the graves,” Smith said.

As for Smith, he said he accepts the fact that he’s going to die, but he does fear it. Having a family, friends, job and hobbies, Smith said he would not want to leave that behind before he has to. “We’re all going to die, but I don’t think we look forward to it.”

He doesn’t blame his job for that fear.

Instead the 57 year-old said he loves life too much. “I’m too young, [and I’m] having too much fun. Even if I worked somewhere else I would have the same feeling.”

Smith has had other jobs.

Gas stations, the steel mill and numerous odd jobs was how Smith made a living early on in his life.

“I done it all. I worked at gas stations…I worked in the mill…I worked at an aluminum place, [and a] couple weeks before you’d get your 90 days in, they’d tell you, well the machine was broke, [and] we have to lay off…we’ll have to call you back…well they never did,” Smith said.

Unable to find a job, Smith turned to his wife Maureen Smith. His at the time, future wife, knew someone who knew someone and before he knew it, he was working again and working with the dead.

But having a job that requires burying people of all sorts of ages and types can take a toll on someone, especially someone who has done it for such a long period of time.

“As far as elderly people, if you’re 80 or 90 [years old], I figured you lived a good life, but when you get young kids [when] something tragic happened, that bothers me,” Smith said. “It’s [burying] babies and young kids that really upset you.”

Being responsible for taking care of the deceased does come with its perks, Smith said. Calvary cemetery happens to be the burial place of one former actor from the Youngstown area.

Patrick “Little Pat” Bilon, who played E.T. in the late movie, is just one celebrity that Smith had the opportunity to bury, and Smith said that it was one of the most unique burial ceremonies he has ever been a part of.

“It was probably one of the neatest funerals I’ve ever seen,” Smith said. “There had to be 40 to 50 limos, with all little people, and I mean they dressed…one kid got out and had a bright red suit on, red hat with a feather in it.”

Standing all of two feet 10 inches tall, Bilon was at one point in time the shortest adult dwarfs in the country.

On the other hand, Smith said that customers can make his job more difficult than it should ever have to be.

“People come in and raise holy hell…they’ll go crazy on you,” Smith said. “Sometimes you take some abuse out here.”