Hi, my name is Ian, and I started Desideratum Memorial Stone Care out of something personal—a quiet feeling of helplessness, mixed with a strong desire to honor someone I loved.

Years ago, I found myself wishing I could visit my grandfather’s grave in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. I wanted to gently clean the stone, clear the moss, and leave a flower—just a small act of care. But I was living in California at the time. The cost of flying halfway across the country and the demands of daily life made it impossible. I searched online for someone local who could help me take care of the gravestone, but I couldn’t find anyone offering that kind of service. That’s when the idea for this business started to take root.

Desideratum is a Latin word meaning “something needed or wanted.” And for many families, that’s what headstone care truly is—a needed, deeply wanted act of remembrance. Our loved ones deserve to be honored, even if we can’t be physically present to do it ourselves.

That’s why I created Desideratum Memorial Stone Care: a local gravestone cleaning and headstone maintenance service based in San Francisco. My goal is to help families who no longer live nearby still take care of their loved ones’ resting places. Whether you’re across the country, or just don’t have the means to make the visit yourself, you can trust us to care for these sacred spaces with respect, precision, and dignity.

I have 11+ years of experience in construction & handyman work and got into studying the proper techniques for stone care and restoration within the past couple years. I formally worked in the soul-sucking field of marketing and wanted to transition into something I could do with my hands that had meaning, not superficially pleasing executives with return-on-investment for their marketing campaigns.