ROEBUCK, S.C. (FOX Carolina) – The last thing you want to wait for when you lose a loved one is the headstone that represents where they lay.
We reached out to 12, upstate monument-makers. All, but one, say they’re backed up.
Matthew Willard with Capital Monuments, Inc., in Roebuck says it’s due to pandemic-related supply chain issues . Getting a headstone can take half a year, on average, these days.
Daniel Johnson lost his mother to COVID-19 last year. He has been waiting for her headstone since May 2022.
“They have her marker ready, but they said the granite is so scarce, that they can’t get it in,” Johnson said.
To Johnson’s family, it means something.
“Closure, to honor her memory, to close this chapter,” said Johnson.
Port back-ups are causing granite shortages.
Willard says he’s been getting calls back-to-back.
“We had a problem of all the deaths from COVID, the demand went way up,” Willard said, “Right now, we’ve got over 200 orders.”
However, the labor went down, and as a result, grieving families are just waiting. On social media, some viewers told us they’ve been waiting 11 months to over a year. Willard says the average is about 90 days.
Granite isn’t the only supplies that’s hard to come by.
“We use little red, China markers to mark on the stone because you can wipe them off. Last time we went to our supply house, they said, ‘We can’t get those,’” said Willard.
That goes for the rubber stencils they use as well.
Willard askes for families’ patience.
“A lot of it is just explaining to them that, hey look, it isn’t just my company. It’s every company,” Willard said.
As Johnson continues to stand by and grieve, he’s relieved that he’s not alone.
“I’m sorry for the other families that are going through this,” Johnson said, “And I hope somehow, someway, things start to change and we can honor our families.”
Willard suggest to families that have lost a loved one to go to your monument maker to see if they have anything in stock or on display, because those can go out a little faster than an order.
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