All Saints Day

In honor of today being All Saints Day, I wanted to share with you an article written about my great-grandfather just a few days after his passing last month.

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Longtime gravedigger goes to his final rest
By Mark LaFlamme, Staff Writer
Saturday, October 15,2005

GREENE - For years, the running joke around town was whether or not Clyde Libby would dig his own grave. In three decades of service to the town, he had dug them for strangers and for some of his most beloved family members.

Libby died Tuesday night after a long career that involved work with a racehorse, the Fire Department and his legendary role as sexton for Valley Cemetery. He was 94."There weren't much that man didn't do," said Bert Ferland, a longtime friend and fellow firefighter. "He did a little of everything."

Libby took over as Greene's gravedigger in 1972 when the man who held that job suffered a heart attack. By then, Libby had already been the town road commissioner, a farmer and caretaker for a racehorse, among other things.

During his decades as sexton, he dug graves for many deceased friends and family members. When his newborn daughter died before ever leaving the hospital, he went to the cemetery at dusk to dig the small hole for her. When his wife of 53 years passed on in 1989, he asked his grandsons to help him dig the grave.

In an interview in 2001, Libby said he took pride in keeping the town cemeteries beautiful and neat, as much for the families of the dead as for the people who are buried there."I never heard one person squawk about my graves," he said in 2001. "And I tell you, it makes me feel pretty good."

Libby coached a Little League baseball team. He was a volunteer firefighter and a long-suffering Red Sox fan, who saw the team win championships in both 1918 and 2004. He worked in the woods and put up 10 cords of wood each year until last winter.

Friends said he was as good to his neighbors as he was to his family."He was a very, very nice man," Ferland said. "If you needed a helping hand, he was there for you."

In 1936, Libby married Laura Foster in Greene. The couple remained married until Laura died in 1989. Libby is survived by two sons and six daughters. A son and daughter died before him.

When Libby started working as sexton, graves were dug with a shovel. He had no backhoe or hired help. There was one period in springtime years ago when Libby had 36 bodies waiting to be buried.

Things improved in latter years, but it was still mostly Clyde Libby keeping the graveyards trimmed and digging holes for the recent dead."He loved it, he really did," Ferland said. "He didn't like to be cooped up. He liked to be out in the fresh air."

The work was seasonal. Libby opened the gates to Greene's seven cemeteries on May 10 and closed them Dec. 1. The digging, mowing, raking and weeding was done during those seven months, and long hours were required of him."My entire body hurts these days," Libby said during the 2001 interview. He was 90 at the time.

Libby held his job for so long, a funeral director once asked him if he planned to dig his own grave. Libby responded that he would if he was given enough notice.

Instead, he will be memorialized with a fireman's funeral in Monmouth. He will then be laid to rest at Valley Cemetery, where someone else will tend to the grave and make sure the grounds are neat and serene.
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Prayer for All Saints Day:
We bless your holy name, O God, for all your servants who, having finished their course, now rest from their labors. Give us the grace to follow the example of their steadfastness and faithfulness, to your honor and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Grace & Peace