Good Sorts: Graeme Pearce Thames

Good Sorts: Graeme Pearce Published: 7:43PM Sunday November 15, 2009 Source: ONE News This week's ONE News Good Sort Graeme Pearce, has an unusual calling - he helps the living remember the dead. His efforts at an abandoned cemetery in Thames have given the men and women who founded the town a grand room with a view. Pearce is an appliance repairman by trade but in his spare time, likes nothing more than donning the gumboots, grabbing a weed whacker and heading to the cemetery. "No one coerced me into doing it, I just thought you have to give something back" he says. Tararu Cemetary was closed to new burials 40 years ago and became overrun with weeds. That was until seven years ago, Pearce saw the mess and made a decision. "(It was) one of those moments in your life where you look out and say okay, it needs to be looked after, no use talking about it, pull your finger and do something," he says. The council doesn't pay for his efforts, but he's not worried. He says Thames has been good to him. Forty years ago, he stopped by, met his wife at the bakery and stayed. Andrea McCartney wrote to ONE News about Pearce. She first brought her father to the cemetery ten years ago, when it was still an overrun mess. "I'm not sure what his wife thinks of all the time he spends up here. You can now drive up if necessary, certainly walk up the paths, you can see all the names and he's just done a marvellous job," she says. Do you know someone who is a "Good Sort" that ONE News should talk to? Click here to nominate them. Share your thoughts on the series and the people featured on the messageboard below. http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/good-sorts-graeme-pearce-3145217