Donald Urquhart has been the sexton at the Hawea cemetery since the mid-1980s when his grandfather retired from the job.
He estimated that over the past 40 years, he had dug at least 90 graves, each one taking him at least four-and-a-half hours to dig.
Mr Urquhart described how the job was when he first took over — ‘‘we dug them by hand’’ — until they started using excavators to dig the graves about 20 years ago.
He characterised himself as a practical person who found peace between the graves he dug.
Mr Urquhart gestured to the farms in the distance and said he had grown up very close to the cemetery which inspired the connection he had with the land.
"I was a community-minded person," he said, remembering all the people he had come to know personally through his job. He smiled at the thought of all the memorable moments he had over the years and said he could fill a book with what he had seen.
Mr Urquhart had dug the graves of his father, aunts and cousins, proving that the job could get very personal.
He expressed how this helped shaped his view of life and death saying he believed "death is a physical thing" with a spiritual aspect to it.
His retirement from such a physically demanding job also marks the end of the sexton position at the Hawea graveyard, as the council is set to take over maintenance responsibilities.
Mr Urquhart said although he understood this had to happen, he did feel it made the work less personal, and the population growth had resulted in less community involvement.
As Hawea grows, roles such as Mr Urquhart’s might disappear but the community dedication he carried in his eyes is something worth remembering.
