For over 130 years, the Giddens have been helping families remember loved ones with custom headstone engravings. After funerals, Gidden Rock of Ages in League City is a stop for many who want to mark their deceased family members’ grave sites with something that encapsulates their lives. “What we try to do is sell stories in stone,” owner Drew Gidden said. “It’s a blank canvas basically when you start one of these.” Some customers who come in hastily pick a simple design. Others, however, take time to mourn during the process, he said. “Some people spend hours and hours in thought,” Gidden said. “Everybody’s different, and everybody grieves different.” Once a customer has chosen a design, Gidden creates a stencil. Granite is ordered from different parts of the country depending on the color the customer wants and shipped to Rock of Ages’ workshop in Conroe. The stencil is laid over the stone and sandblasted, resulting in the final design, Gidden said. Of the many headstones Gidden has designed over the years, it is those of children that he remembers most. Gidden helped one family turn the crayon doodles of one girl who died into headstone engravings. Gidden designed a bronze marlin to capstone the memorial of a boy who loved to fish. “Unfortunately, we do sell memorials for children,” Gidden said. “I always remember these kids.” Besides creating headstones, Gidden helps design mausoleums for families. The most expensive one he has helped create cost $1.5 million, Gidden said. Rock of Ages started in Kansas City in 1885 before moving to Houston in the 1920s. Gidden moved the business to League City after he took it over more than a decade ago to avoid the hour-long commute to work each day, he said. As a fourth-generation owner of the business, Gidden has noticed a decline in the number of headstones purchased. Over half the country is cremated instead of buried, Gidden said, so he has adjusted his business accordingly; Rock of Ages recently began talking to local churches to begin creating columbariums, which are structures where urns can be placed, Gidden said. Despite the macabre nature of Gidden’s business, one thing it has allowed him to do is meet people from all walks of life. “You meet everybody,” Gidden said. “Because everybody dies.”