Lapida-maker learns tricks of trade through self-study

Armed with a hammer and chisel, 53-year-old Albert Saga sets up his working table along Mango Avenue outside Carreta Public Cemetery as early as 6 a.m.  Saga has done this for the last 29 years.

He was only 24 when he ventured into the lapida-making business.

“I was young then and I did not really have a clear direction on my mind. All I care about was to look for a living and become independent,” he said.

Saga is the third child of seven siblings. And because his parents did not have a stable job, all of them were unable to finish college.

His parents’ income then was only enough for the family’s daily needs and Saga, who was a second-year high school student at that time, had to stop schooling to help the family out.

Eventually he met friends, who made signages and gravestones. They inspired him to learn the craft so that he could offer his own services and earn money.

“I started with only my hammer and chisel and borrowed samples from my friend that I can put as display in my area along the sidewalk at Mango Avenue,” he said.

Being among the first to have set up his display and work area in Carreta Public Market, Saga enjoyed good profits from many customers who dropped by for their orders.

“Because I did not have money then to buy marble and granite for the gravestone, I require my customers to pay half of the price of their order,” he said.

From simple straight fonts to the different styles and italics, Saga practiced all calligraphy styles so that he can offer many options to his customers.

He would go and check out what others also do — get printouts of calligraphy styles that would look good in the tombstone and practice making it.

“I would use broken pieces of marbles and granite stones to practice carving the letters because I cannot risk making mistakes. It would mean additional cost if I make a lot of mistakes,” he said.

The standard size of a single gravestone is 24”x12”x4” which costs P1,000 for a simple engraved marble type and as high as P6,000 for an engraved granite.

In a day, Saga can make as many as six gravestones depending on the design of the job.

He said some like putting engraved designs aside from the names of the dead loved one while others liked it plain and simple.

The business however is a seasonal business. And he said that it wasn’t profitable to do the whole year.

“Our peak months are from August to November in time for the Halloween because there are people who wants the gravestones of their dead relative changed especially if some had been broken or were very old already,” he said.

On an average basis, Saga said he gets an order in one day.

“There are those days when I get so many orders and those days when I end the day with no order at all. What my wife does is really save so that we will have money enough to support our needs during days with no sale,” he said.

He, however, is proud that his lapida-making business had helped send one of his six children to graduate from college and earn a degree.

“She finished a degree in HRM or Hotel and Restaurant Management two years ago and now she is helping send her brother to school which is what I really wanted for them,” he said.

The child is helping out with the school expenses of her younger brother, who is taking up an engineering course at the Asian College of Technology.

Despite his success in the lapida-making business, Saga wouldn’t want any of his children to follow his footsteps.

“This is a very difficult job which requires you to stay the whole day under the heat of the sun and work in the dusty sides of the road near cemeteries because this is where you get orders. I don’t want that life for my children, that is why I’m so happy that one of them has already finished a degree,” Saga said.