“You can just see how dark he was, really everywhere, but especially in those little crevices, and under his hair… I just am so proud of this project,” said Jeri Sabie.
She was back out at St. Simon and Jude Cemetery on the outskirts of Flandreau this past week, in awe of how beautifully the marble now shows on an old monument of Jesus on the cross, with Mary and St. John by his side.
“I think they’re gorgeous right now because you can actually see the grain in the marble again,” she said.
Just a year ago, the statues were covered in the mossy film that tends to take over aging marble headstones. Several headstones in that section remain coated in the same biological buildup — a mix of moss, algae, and lichens that form flat, crusty, or leafy patches on stone surfaces. Lichens and algae, in particular, trap moisture and can slowly degrade stone, especially softer ones like limestone, sandstone, or marble.
So Sabie and her friend Lisa Rosheim decided to do something about it.
They started with firm plastic brushes to try and take off the thick film, careful not to scratch the marble. No luck.

They tried popsicle sticks and other cleaners. Still no results.
Then one day in Elkton, while waiting to meet a family to help with a gravesite, Sabie had a revelation.
“I was waiting for a couple to come and show me where a gravesite is for their son, and all their stones are just pearl white. And I’m like, how can this be… how can they get all of these stones to stay so pearl white?”
She asked the cemetery sexton there, who pointed her to a product called Wet & Forget Outdoor. She quickly went and bought it.
Sabie and Rosheim applied their first coat in June of last year, and a second coat in the fall. The results speak for themselves.
“Isn’t that just beautiful? I just absolutely love it. I’m in awe every time I come out here and look at that, compared to what it was,” Sabie said.
They now hope others with aging family headstones will take notice. Restoring marble doesn’t take more than a spray bottle and a little time.
“Just spray it and walk away,” Sabie added.
The parish of Saints Simon & Jude was founded in 1878 in Flandreau, Dakota Territory, with Father Koeberl as the first pastor. The monument Sabie and Rosheim cleaned marks the burial site of five early Flandreau priests: Rev. Thomas Quick, Rev. F.E. Cunniff, Rev. E.J. Bonneterre, Rev. George E. Kelly and Rev. Msgr. Felix McCabe.