I have been an interested reader of this site for many months, and I
think the discussions are worthwhile and interesting. Sometimes I
think we lose sight of what we are trying to accomplish, or perhaps we
don't all have the same goals. Anyway, I feel that I would like to
give a little testimonial for Walt. First of all, if you have ever
worked with Walt, you surely know he does not "hold himself in high
esteem". He seems to be a very modest person.
I hired Walt to restore the stones of my g-g-g-grandparents who came
from Ireland to America in the late 1700s. I wanted someone
knowledgeable in the restoration field to do this work. Of course, my
g-g-g-grandparents have been dead nearly two hundred years, and I know
very little about them. I went to Ireland a few years ago and while I
was there I tried to imagine how brave those people had to be to make
the long voyage to America. Then I thought of all the hardships they
must have endured after they finally settle in Indiana. Their stones
will be the only contact I will ever have with them. I can imagine my
ancestors going to the cemetery and paying their respects to those
that came before them. I am glad I am able to go to this same
cemetery and see this same memorial to my g-g-g-grandparents and pay
my respects.
Walt did a beautiful job on the resotrations. After he finished the
stones I had hired him to do, he and Micki just kept working on other
stones. I finally told him I couldn't pay him for any more work, but
he said that was all right. He didn't expect any money for the extra
work. Walt and Micki also spent a lot of time teaching my husband,
myself, and another person how to restore stones. I know we will
never be as proficient as the Walters (and so do they), but they were
so kind and encouraging to all of us. Walt just wants people to treat
each stone like we would want our ancestors stones treated---seems
fair to me.
There are now three of us working on this cemetery of 200 plus stones.
A tornado passed through the cemetery in 1993 and knocked down many
large trees. Then "someone" came into the cemetery with heavy
equipment and logged the big sugar maple trees that were ripped up by
their roots during the storm. The heavy equipment did much additional
damage to the stones, so we really started with a big mess on our
hands. Slowly, but surely, the three of us who started on this
project are still working and repairing stones and "doing no
harm"---we hope.