A Vermont woman scrubs grime from gravestones and researches who is buried there

RUPERT, Vt. (AP) — Carrying a large pump spray bottle and a small, sturdy brush, Caitlin Abrams stood before two starkly contrasting graves in a modest cemetery in western Vermont. Overcast skies hung low over a nearby hillside in full autumn color.

Last year, Abrams had delicately cleaned the tombstone of Mary Bailey, who died in 1852 at just 21 years old. The still-pristine white marble stone stood out compared to the neighboring grave, holding Bailey’s sister Eliza, covered in grime and moss collected over the decades.

Working in quick, gentle strokes, Abrams used her brush and sprayer to peel away dirt hiding the floral details on Eliza's grave before moving to the next.

“Sometimes you can definitely see a difference right away,” she said. “Other times, it’s a month later you’ll come back and go ‘oh my gosh, it’s beautiful.’”

Abrams is one of the many social media creators who have found success posting videos of themselves cleaning graves. They can attract large audiences, often including those looking for cleaning content or videos with repetitive and subtle sounds known for their calming effect.

The trend was particularly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic as people searched for safe hobbies, finding connections over death during a pandemic. It's also sparked criticism, with some worried that strangers are capitalizing on gravesites without notifying descendants and risking damaging the sites.

Yet Abrams doesn’t solely focus on the cleaning process. She researches and then shares the details she has found of the individual lives in her videos while filming the moss and buildup being washed away. Abrams focuses on 18th and 19th century headstones in remote yet picturesque graveyards in Vermont, and her viewers are drawn to her deep dives into the past that also touch on the dark nature of death and spirits.

“I let them pick me,” Abrams said, referring to how she selects what graves to clean. “I’m drawn to it and kind of look at it and see how I feel.”

Abrams likes to focus on the stories of young women and children, pointing to the connection she has as a mother of two in a world where men’s stories are often elevated.

Yet researching the dead takes time. It requires Abrams to cross-reference birth, marriage and death certificates, as well as newspaper clippings.

“It’s like journalism, but for dead people,” she joked.

While there’s no central agency counting how many cemeteries are in the U.S., data visualization expert Joshua Stevens attempted to map more than 144,000 of the nation's graveyards and cemeteries, many of which not only could use a good cleaning but also need restoration and preservation.

Online interest in the labor surrounding the upkeep of graveyards is encouraging, but can be a double-edged sword, said John Appell, a monument and gravestone restoration professional and CEO of Atlas Preservation.

“This is not a blanket statement, but there’s certainly a significant number of people that seem to be out there that kind of just want fame,” he said.

Without proper training, graves can become damaged with aggressive brushing or crumble if handled too roughly, he said. An amateur genealogist in 2021 admitted she had scrubbed roughly 200 gravestones at a Maryland cemetery in a way that left them damaged.

Workshops for volunteer cleanup efforts are one way to learn the skill before heading out to your local cemetery. In 2016, hundreds of volunteers in Louisiana helped restore a cemetery dating back to the Civil War.

“Cleaning is just one aspect of a much bigger subject,” Appell said, pointing to the need to also preserve monuments and structures inside historic cemeteries.

Abrams agreed that proper cleaning, as well as permission from cemeteries, are crucial before setting out to clean a grave.

Brushing off tombstones is a regular ritual in some cultures, including in Mexico where entire families clean and decorate graves, which are covered with orange marigolds for Day of the Dead. The holiday begins Oct. 31, remembering those who died in accidents; it continues Nov. 1 to mark those who died in childhood, and then those who died as adults on Nov. 2.

In the United States, cemeteries were among the country’s first public parks where communities could come together, Abrams said. But that sentiment has been lost over the years in the U.S. She hopes her work can help remove the fear surrounding cemeteries.

“I like the idea of a cemetery as a place where people can come and be and exist with the people who have passed before us,” she said.

Kruesi reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

Caitlin Abrams, who became popular on TikTok for her grave cleaning videos, cleans a gravestone at a cemetery in Rupert, Vt., Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Amanda Swinhart)

Gravestones in the Rupert Street Cemetery in Rupert, Vt., are pictured Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Amanda Swinhart)

Caitlin Abrams, who became popular on TikTok for her grave cleaning videos, cleans a gravestone at a cemetery in Rupert, Vt., Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Amanda Swinhart)

Caitlin Abrams, who became popular on TikTok for her grave cleaning videos, scrapes away moss and lichen from a gravestone at a cemetery in Rupert, Vt., Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Amanda Swinhart)

Caitlin Abrams, who became popular on TikTok for her grave cleaning videos, scrapes away moss and lichen from a gravestone at a cemetery in Rupert, Vt., Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Amanda Swinhart)

Asian shares were mostly lower Friday after the latest shudder for artificial-intelligence stocks weighed on markets around the world, giving the benchmark S&P 500 its worst day since July.

Oil prices were hovering at their highest levels since May on worries about the war with Iran, with Brent crude up 0.5% at $113.73 per barrel. U.S. benchmark crude oil added 0.6% to $100.08 per barrel.

In share trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 1.7% to 61,825.26, while the Kospi in South Korea declined 2.4% to 5,403.32.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 0.2% to 22,983.80 and the Shanghai Composite index slipped 1.3% to 3,610.52.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.2% to 8,777.00.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 1.2%, while the Nasdaq composite tumbled 2.6%. The weakness for tech stocks was so overwhelming that it masked strength for the rest of the U.S. market, where the majority of stocks actually rose. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added less than 0.1%.

AI-related stocks have been swinging on worries that their boom may be under threat because of how expensive it’s become to borrow money to build data centers and buy more AI chips. Investors fear their prices shot too high during a yearslong frenzy, even though companies in the industry continue to report growth.

Meta Platforms, which is pushing its Muse AI agent, lost 7% after reporting stronger revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its profit fell short. The company behind Facebook and Instagram also said it’s creating a new class of stock to raise money to pay for AI investments and other expenses.

Tesla fell 3.1% after reporting a stronger profit for the summer than analysts expected, though its revenue was weaker than forecast.

The global tide against AI stocks knocked Nvidia down 4.4%. Because the chip giant is the largest company on Wall Street by total value, movements for its stock carry more weight on the S&P 500 than any other, and it was the single strongest force pulling the index lower.

CoreWeave, which has borrowed money to buy Nvidia’s AI chips that it rents out to customers over the cloud, has been particularly shaky in recent weeks because of worries about its debt. It dropped 10.1%.

Higher oil prices also have been weighing on stocks. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil leaped 4% on Thursday and has shot up from less than $97 at the start of the month on uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the global energy industry to return to normal.

Worries about big government debt loads and strained budgets are hanging over almost every developed economy. Protests across France have raised pressure on the government to increase spending, which could add further to its debt.

In the United States, such concerns, along with high inflation, signals of a still-strong U.S. economy and other factors, have pushed yields in the U.S. bond market recently to their highest levels in decades.

But U.S. yields fell sharply Thursday in a signal that investors were buying U.S. government bonds in search of something safer to own as AI stocks tumbled.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury tumbled to 4.97% from 5.13% late Wednesday and from more than 5.30% earlier this month. That’s a major move for the bond market.

Thursday’s drop in yields came even as another report suggested the U.S. economy may be doing better than economists expected. It said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, which could signal that layoffs remain low across the country.

In other dealings early Friday, the U.S. dollar rose to 156.93 Japanese yen from 156.77 yen. The euro was unchanged at $1.1215.

AP Business Writer Stan Choe in New York contributed to this report.

A screen shows the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics Co. stock price at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)