Save Money, Die Now: 19 Into 20 Won’t Go

Here’s another, little-known problem that will arrive with the year 2000: what to do with those prepaid gravestones that are already carved with a “19” where the year of the person’s death goes.

The “19” is found mostly on companion stones, usually purchased when one spouse dies and the other wants to reserve the adjacent plot. The next two digits are supposed to be carved in when the person dies.

Most companies stopped putting “19” on prearranged headstones in the late 1970s. Others never did it, leaving the whole space blank.

The “19” was supposed to ease the burden of funeral costs. But if those people who bought the headstones don’t die by the end of 1999, their families may have some added expenses.

Some in the monument business say it could cost as little as $35 to patch over the “19.” But others say customers could end up paying thousands if they want the job done right.

“Sure, it can be patched up, but there’s no way that it will look like a natural stone when it’s completed,” said Robert Helton, division manager for Tulsa Monument Co. “The cost to have it done right could begin in the range of $2,000.”

The problem is another part of the “Year 2000 Glitch.”

Many computer systems are programmed to recognize only the last two digits in a date--thus, 2000 would be misinterpreted as 1900. A presidential council was recently created to help federal agencies that could have big computer problems when the calendar changes to 2000.

Although Helton’s company has never put “19” on prearranged headstones, he said more than 75 people had called recently for suggestions on how to fix the problem.

When Ernest Waggoner, owner of the Norman Monument Co., added “98” to a prearranged headstone one recent day, he didn’t think about how different his job would have been if it was the year 2000.

“Gosh, it would’ve been a lot more work for me,” he said. “My wife’s father, who owned the company before me, began leaving the space blank in the ‘70s. I guess he saw this coming.”

Waggoner said fixing the problems with other prearranged headstones won’t cost that much.

“The rough edges of the stone can be chipped off, pounded into dust and mixed with Super Glue. Then, the mixture is poured into the numbers and you cut the new numbers over it once it has dried,” Waggoner said.

But Helton believes otherwise, with the cost of recutting and polishing the rock varying according to color and size.

“It would be cheaper in the long run to simply buy a new stone,” he said.