An innovative gardening company will tend to any grave in Ireland, making life easier for far-flung relatives. Helen O'Neill reports

When Trish Hickey's baby sister died, 20 years ago, her mother was too emotional to visit the grave at first, so Hickey and her sister would go instead. In time she realised that grave-tending was a service that many people would pay for, and she now runs a nationwide business, Grave Angels, landscaping and tending graves.

It seems a labour of love for Hickey, now a mother of six, from Enniskerry, in Co Wicklow. "There was a gap in the market," she says. At the time no other company was offering that kind of service.

The business evolved gradually. After she'd been tending her sister's grave for some time, relatives and friends who were impressed with what they saw asked if she would tend graves for them.

Gradually word of mouth spread until it evolved in to Grave Angels, which she runs with Brian Little, a landscape gardener from Kilkenny. It has been in operation since October last year and now looks after more than 70 graves.

A clean-up costs €300; an additional €300 ensures that the grave is maintained for a year, with a landscaper visiting it once a month.

The company, which makes extra visits on anniversaries and at Christmas, can also use the dead person's favourite plants.

Hickey and Little say there has

also been interest from abroad. Irish-Americans keen to have

Irish relatives' graves tended now make up an important part of the company's customer base. "Wherever there's Irish people we will tend to their grave," says Little.

They take before and after photographs of the plot so that far-flung relatives can see the difference even if they can't visit the grave.

The service also helps people

who feel unable to visit a grave because they find it too upsetting. "It's very emotionally draining," says Little. Many of them do not want to deal with going to the grave, and once it has fallen in to a poor state they stop visiting it. "It's all about guilt: the longer they leave it the worse it gets," says Little.

One client said that his grown-up sons no longer visit their mother's grave. "After we did some work on it he said it was the first time in six years that they felt good about the grave."

Hickey says: "They are paying for peace of mind. It's more for the

living than the dead: it's to keep somebody's memory alive." She describes an unkept grave as

being "like death staring you in the face".

Graves may be unkept because people are unsure how to maintain them. "Most families don't know how to do it; they have no experience in landscaping. Others don't have any transport," says Hickey.

A typical day for the Grave Angels begins early in the morning. "We load up our tools, choose the plants and then go out to the cemetery," says Little.

Hickey adds: "I love it because you are out in the open, I can choose my own hours \ it's just lovely. Cemeteries are peaceful places. It's a special experience."

The Grave Angels website is at www.graveangels.com. You can also get in touch by calling 087-6408269