Journal photo / Connie Grosch

My father started this monument business on Federal Hill in 1904. When I was a boy, I was always in the backyard, in his way rather than playing with my brothers on the playground. That’s a picture of my father — he was very handsome. Dark hair and blue eyes. He died at the age of 61. This is me when I’m 19 years old in the old shop on Atwells Avenue. Pop was maybe 35.

My father died in ’52. He always said, “ ‘Keep your nose to the grindstone, Tony. If you treat the customers right and you’re honest and conscientious, you’ll make out.’ ”

In 1954, I bought a little lot on Dyer Avenue and put up a one-car garage. Here’s a photo of my little shack and my 1948 Chevrolet — all paid for. I didn’t have enough clientele to make a living so I worked nights at the Print Works to support my wife and four children. It took a lot of hard work and patience and a low price, but I was honest and the good Lord paid me off for that. Here I am at 91 still working. Now my son is my partner. He’s a talented hardworking boy, just as talented as my father. We have a lucrative business here, and we don’t owe anybody a penny. My father did the stones for a lot of famous people here — Pastore, Del Sesto, Bishop McVinney, rich man Cardi. We did the wall at the Veterans Cemetery in Exeter, and a memorial for the Station [nightclub] fire victims. We’ve done a lot of big work, and a lot of small work, but you’ve got to be honest and you’ve got to pay your bills.

Look at the size of this stone. When it’s all finished it will look like this. See, this side is blank — they’re not dead yet. We have a portable compressor so that we can do the work in the cemetery — cut the names in as they die. Thirty percent of our sales last year were to people who aren’t dead yet. We call them “premies.” Death is certain for all of us so you need to plan.

Journal photo / Connie Grosch

The engraving is done with a stencil, then sandblasted. We have a big machine that does much of the work but a lot is still by hand. Look at this one — it’s going to Swan Point. It’s made of black slate. We’re replicating an old monument. Slate has to be used in old-fashioned cemeteries like Swan Point. Otherwise we use granite from Vermont. There are different colors in the bowels of the earth. In Canada it’s pink, in Africa it’s black and in Vermont it’s all Rock of Ages gray granite from Barre, Vt. — supposed to be the world’s largest granite quarry.

Polishing is optional. It’s expensive, especially to polish all five sides. It’s mostly to seal the granite and keep it clean. In the old days, they didn’t have the machines to polish, so the letters are worn down in the old cemeteries. A customer may not want it polished if they want that old-fashioned look.

Some people don’t want ornate stuff or fancy sayings. Just a name. Simplicity. That one’s ready to go — that lady made up her own saying: We lived together in happiness. We rest together in peace. Isn’t that nice? I’ve seen some clever ones. The cemetery has to approve the monument. The Catholic ones don’t allow anything nonreligious, like a football or a guitar. Nothing comical. People will go overboard if you let them. We have to submit sketches before we start on it.

Here’s a big mausoleum for people who want to be buried indoors. It holds two people. We put the bodies in there, then close it up with a bronze door with the family name on it. But not many people buy these ’cause you need a thirty-foot-by-thirty-foot plot and that costs a lot.

An average monument takes about 24 hours, but we can’t work continuously on just one. We have about a dozen or so stones going at any given time. We tell people 8 to 10 weeks. If someone nags us, then we have to start working on that one and set another aside.

All the carving and engraving is done in this room. It’s very skilled work — from the layout and measurements and design to the sandblasting. If you’re not careful, you spoil the whole stone.

It’s creating. It’s not boring or repetitious. There’s no two monuments that are exactly the same. It’s art. I can say, “I did that and it’s going to be here for centuries.”

You need a lot of compassion. I don’t overcharge people. I convince them not to go overboard. I say, “You’re so sad right now, you would spend all you’ve got and then some but lady you’ve got to live. Your husband wouldn’t want you to spend six or seven thousand when you could buy one for one or two thousand.’ I might lose a lot of income that way but I’d rather be like that. I always say, “This one will get you there.”

I can’t imagine doing anything else. My fourth grade teacher told me I should go home and work with my father ’cause I was always drawing pictures of monuments during class.

That one there is my monument. There’s room for 12 names — for me and my wife, three daughters, one son and their spouses. It’s like the cobbler that doesn’t have a decent pair of shoes! I think at my age, I should start thinking about my own.

This little garage is the original. I kept it for sentimental reasons, to show how I started.