Briton spends a fortune on a strange hobby
A young British man's obsession with visiting graves has led him to visit more than 700 cemeteries around the world, spending a fortune on this strange hobby.
The idea of tracing the recent graves of the rich and famous has dominated the life of 49-year-old Mark Dabbs.
The young man's hobby, which consumes a lot of time and money, took his obsession to the extreme, searching for the graves of historical figures and celebrities, where he "meet" their inhabitants, as he put it.
Among the group of famous tombs visited by the young man are those of John F. Kennedy, in Washington, DC, and Marilyn Monroe in Los Angeles.
Mark said that 'in the United Kingdom, I have probably visited hundreds of famous cemeteries, I have visited all the graves of our prime ministers - except for the three that have no graves.'
“I would love to see Sir Roger Bannister the sportsman in Oxford,” he said. He also went to look at the graves in Scotland of poet Robert Burns, racing driver Jim Clark, and author of “Peter Pan J.M. Barry.” Mark explained, “I am very interested in history and world affairs.” I would like to go back to Moscow to get (the opportunity to visit) Stalins like Churchill and Roosevelt.”
"I had a lot of interesting conversations with people when I tried to find the graves and a lot of people were really interested," he added.
But it was not easy in his travels, as he said: “When I went to Oyster Bay to find the grave of Theodore Roosevelt, there was no one there, and the mausoleum was behind the wall, and the gate was shut.” Mark looked around to find a metal ladder for some workers nearby, and took him and climbed his steps. To get a picture with the grave, but his balance was disturbed and he fell off the stairs.
"I thought I was going to be trapped there for hours," Mark added.
Mark says, according to the "Daily Star" newspaper, that he does not intend to stop soon from the hobby that he spends a lot of money on, but it brings him a lot of joy.
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