HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — Cemeteries are places that hold countless memories, but also places that can lose their history if those memories are forgotten. Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes— and their helping hands— to restore that history.
For Jim Thompson, an 81-year-old retiree who lives only a block away from Files Cemetery in Hot Springs, he couldn't leave well enough alone.
"[There] was a big tree that had fallen down," Thompson told us. "I watched it for a long time and nobody was doing anything."
With time on his hands and equipment lying around, one project turned into another, until he found himself working through the brutal heat of the summer, finding hidden headstones and slashing back overgrown weeds from grave markers.
"Then the fire department got me," he said of the day he had four debris piles smoldering. "Somebody called the police on me and here they come. But they were all really nice."
The visit from the fire department prompted Thompson to question why he seemed to be the only one who cared about cleaning up the property. He soon found out he had tread into a story with a complicated plot.
Thirty years earlier, Files Cemetery became the setting for an uplifting story centered around the works of Ruth Coker Burks, the "Cemetery Angel."
She cared for and then secretly buried the remains of dozens of AIDS victims, by her account, during the height of the epidemic.
Her efforts and subsequent memoir "All The Young Men" drew national recognition right through 2019.
However, after she moved away, Files started to show signs of neglect.
Part of the problems stem from assertions in her book and in past interviews that Coker Burks basically owns the property, as well as disputed plans to build a fitting memorial to the people she buried.
Whether any of that means she is responsible for maintaining Files is difficult to determine.
"When you look at our county records, it does show Files Cemetery as an unplotted lot. However, it doesn't show an owner," said Bill Burrough, the Hot Springs City Manager.
He explained that there's almost nothing the city could do to make somebody take care of the place, and so it seems like Thompson came along at the right time.
"It's sad that any type of cemetery like that would fall in in any kind of disrepair or have those kinds of issues," Burrough said. "Thank goodness that we have good Samaritans willing to help."
Since Thompson took it upon himself, there are signs that others have noticed.
Now, he hopes his efforts will spark an interest in helping finish what he's started.
"Everybody in here at one time is God's children and they all need respect, and that's the way I felt about it," Thompson said when asked if he would have taken on the cleanup if he knew the circumstances of some of the people secretly buried there.
With or without others coming along— he's not changing how he feels now.
"I will continue to work here and do what I can," he said. "With or without help."