Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 03/01) - Kevin Look is a gravedigger, but he doesn't find the cemetery depressing and, no, he doesn't have any hair-raising ghost stories to spill.

It took four days and a lot of elbow grease for Kevin Look to dig this grave.

Well, there was one incident. One of his co-workers says an inukshuk in the cemetery spoke to him.

"He asked me if the inukshuk talked to me or tried to reach out for me," says Look. "I told him, no man, no psycho inukshuk for me."

According to Look, his co-worker's eerie inukshuk experience has a logical explanation. "He was trying to quit smoking at the time."

This is Look's third summer working for the city, but July marked his first month on the cemetery beat. He digs and fills in tombs with a bobcat, and also cuts and waters the lawn.

He says the cemetery is a peaceful place where nothing, except for the bugs, bothers him.

"People get spooked out by the cemetery or figure it's depressing," he says. But I don't think it is, because I don't know the people."

"Or maybe I'm just insensitive," he adds.

Last week, he dug a six-foot grave with a shovel because the plot was difficult to get at with the bobcat. It took him, his predecessor Mansel, and two others four gruelling days to finish the job.

"It was very hard, not something you want to do every day," he says. "I'm very proud of it."

The plot's future resident showed up while the boys were digging. "He came along and said -- hey, you guys are digging my grave. He was a nice guy who was just joking around a little."

So, how does a gravedigger want to be buried?

Actually, he wants to be cremated, "I don't want a grave," he says. "I've seen the work that goes on in here, and I don't want to put someone through that hell."