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Tik Tok hit Divorced mum who took up tombstone cleaning for therapy becomes internet star

Alicia Williams Expand

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Alicia Williams

Alicia Williams

Alicia Williams

Neil Fetherstonhaugh

A woman who had gone through a painful divorce has found solace in tombstone cleaning has become an online sensation.

Alicia Williams, a Virginia woman found some respite for her troubles by tidying up the tombstones of those resting in peace and has now amassed a TikTok following of over 1.1 million subscribers since October.

“I was in the middle of an incredibly high-conflict divorce and had to adjust to sharing custody of my children from Virginia to Florida,” Williams explains to her online audience of her grave-beautification fixation. “I needed a therapeutic outlet.”

The stay-at-home mom turned social media megastar has captivated viewers with her time-lapsed cleansing journey in Bedford, Virginia’s Longwood Cemetery.

Each minute long clip begins with a shot of a grime-covered gravestone — typically belonging to the deceased of the 1900s, though some are as recent as the 1990s.

As she washes away decades of dirt and pollen, Williams gives a brief closed-caption biography of the deceased while the sounds of her wiping and brushing serve as background sounds.

“My first clean was my aunt Hattie, my great-grandmother’s sister,” Williams says in a November video.

“She was buried alone. Her family rests elsewhere. I felt drawn to her because of that. She died so young.”

When she’s not fascinating followers with her cemetery swabbing, Williams is sharing how-to tips for viewers also interested in prettying-up RIP plaques.

“Other than that, it just takes my time and patience and care,” she says in her most recent instructional post.

Williams fully attributes her emotional recovery from the divorce to her burial plot polishing.

“The whole process of the last three years has been a metaphor [of] my healing from my divorce,” she says.

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