58-year-old Alberto Saga carefully carves a name into granite, a small business that he has had for nearly four decades. Saga ‘s lapida making has helped send his six children through school. (CDN PHOTO / JUNJIE MENDOZA)
For more than 30 years, Alberto Saga has held his spot outside Carreta Cemetery along General Maxilom Avenue in Cebu City, making grave markers.
Working for more than 10 hours each day with only a 30-minute meal or restroom break as reprieve, the 58-year-old lapida maker was determined to continue working while his body still allowed it.
“I’ll only stop if my body can’t take it anymore. For now, it’s business as usual,” Saga, while working on a granite grave marker, told Cebu Daily News on Monday.
Saga is among the gravestone makers whose pieces of work are openly displayed outside the Carreta Cemetery all year round.
While engraving the names of the deceased on slabs of rock isn’t what most would consider a conventional occupation, Saga said his work has helped feed his family and send his children to school.
Saga’s family traces its roots to Tayasan in Negros Oriental, but he and his siblings were born in Cebu City.
Born to a family of gravestone makers, Saga started learning the craft as his brother Diosdado’s apprentice when he was 19 years old.
“I used to run errands for him and at the same time, learn engraving,” he said.
It took him four months to learn the basics of lettering and another month to get the hang of engraving stone.
Saga’s lapida making has helped finance the schooling of his six children, who have now all graduated and married except for two.
He said he worked hard all these years so his children can earn their education, adding that he stopped going to school after his second year in high school due to financial constraints.
58-year-old Alberto Saga carefully carves a name into granite, a small business that he has had for nearly four decades. Saga ‘s lapida making has helped send his six children through school. (CDN PHOTO/ JUNJIE MENDOZA)
Saga said he counts himself particularly lucky during the months approaching All Souls’ Day, scoring up to 30 gravestone orders between September and October.
While interviewed by CDN, he was working on his second to the last piece of work commissioned during those months.
Depending on size, style, or material, Saga said his gravestones are priced at P1,200 to P4,000.
Standard-sized markers are 50 by 60 centimeters and are made of marble. Clients may opt for stainless granite markers, which are more expensive.
Engraved markers usually take about one day to make while work on stainless ones run up to five days, said Saga.
Saga said he has considered quitting making gravestone markers in favor of other pursuits such as utility work or masonry but is always held back by the realization that his craft is what he does best.
“Despite not finishing high school and only having this kind of work, this is no easy task. If there were no gravestone makers, the living wouldn’t be able to recognize the dead in cemeteries,” he said in jest.
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