By Sarah Stultz, staff writer

It may be a job where no two days are alike &8212; but that&8217;s not what makes it rewarding.

Each day that Ron Vogel, Bob Mickelsen and Ken Gordon come to work at Star Granite Works on South Broadway in Albert Lea, they know they&8217;re going to help someone make one of the biggest decisions of their lives.

Whether it takes a few days for some &8212; or a few years for others &8212; the decision of how to memorialize a loved one isn&8217;t an easy task to make.

Vogel, the sales manager for Star Granite Works, said when he tells people he sells monuments, they often tell him that&8217;s the last place they&8217;d want to be.

But for Vogel, the job is his way of giving back.

&8220;It feels like I&8217;m servicing people,&8221; he said. &8220;I&8217;m trying to give back something to the community &8212; something that will last hundreds of years for people to enjoy.&8221;

Star Granite Works, which is owned by Braham Monument, serves families in Iowa and southern Minnesota.

It was founded in 1892 and now helps around 200 families a year with one of the last major expenses for their loved one, Vogel said.

Though it can be a very emotional time for many, it is their job simply to advise, and not to tell, families what to do in their decisions, he and Mickelsen said.

Once families come to the business to have a gravestone made, they must first figure out what kind of memorial they&8217;d like: granite or bronze.

If they decide on a granite headstone, they then must figure out what style and color of a marker they want and then decide what names, information and designs to put on it.

Vogel recalled some recent memorable monuments that the business has designed. One example he shared was of a gravestone that had a couple&8217;s handprints on it, a design that he noted was very unique.

Others he and Mickelsen shared included one that incorporated four photos of a loved one, another that had a family cabin up in the woods, and yet another that had a man&8217;s beloved 1947 Lincoln pictured on the gravestone.

&8220;The sky&8217;s the limit really on what we can do,&8221; Vogel said.

Because Mickelsen, who has worked for the business for almost 30 years, does most of the work by hand, he is able to do a lot that a computer can&8217;t do, Vogel said.

And when families come back in and express their satisfaction with their final design, &8220;that&8217;s when the personal gratification comes,&8221; he said.

&8220;This isn&8217;t like a car or draperies where you&8217;d bring it back in a few years to trade,&8221; Mickelsen said.

Because this is a permanent decision that can take many hours of thought, often spread across several visits before it is made, the business makes every attempt to simply guide the family and not to force them to hurry the process along.

&8220;We&8217;re helping provide closure for families,&8221; Vogel said. &8220;We want people to buy when they&8217;re ready, not when we&8217;re ready.&8221;

While they do sell to families directly, they often work through funeral homes as well to make the process easier for families.

In addition to memorials for families, Star Granite Works also makes larger veterans memorials. It has completed some in Sheffield, Iowa, Rockwell, Iowa, and Mason City, Iowa.

While Vogel and Mickelsen can often be found in the shop, Gordon is the man who&8217;s out running the granite truck and setting the stones in place when they&8217;re completed.

The company pledges that it is a customer-service oriented business that always puts families first.