A much-needed service has been revitalised here in Bermuda with the opening of a local memorial business.

For many years Bermuda has been without a service which could provide headstones and plaques for its cemeteries.

That is, until Tom McFarlane met his Bermudian wife Carol (nee Simmons) in Canada and moved to the Island one year ago to set up Island Memorials.

Tom comes from a family-owned memorial business in Canada where they buy granite and marble from all over the world including such places as Italy, Africa, USA and Canada.

This gives Tom and Carol a direct contact for their memorials which are brought here to Bermuda from Tom's family business in Canada.

The names, dates and designs are carved in Canada before being shipped to Bermuda although Tom has the equipment and training to allow him to go directly to the cemetery and add any additional names and dates on site.

He can also clean the years of build-up of moss, fungus and algae from existing memorials - bringing them back to their original condition.

In addition to the memorials Tom and Carol also have available to them granite and marble tiles, counter tops, building slabs and statues.

They feel that through their buying power from the Canadian end of their business they can offer very competitive pricing at discount rates.

Island Memorials are more than their name suggests.

They are proud of the fact that they are able to cater to clients with a broad range of project sizes from tiling a small bathroom to supplying granite or marble for a large commercial building project.