On a breezy Friday morning, crews moved carefully through the lawns of Fairhaven Memorial Park. The park’s wide green spaces, shaded by tall trees, were quiet except for the hum of equipment and the soft voices of the men who tend the grounds and the thousands of final resting places the Santa Ana cemetery hosts.
Two of the men — Miguel Lucero and his son, Cesar — have long been a familiar presence, keeping the grass green all year long and making sure the burial spots are treated with care.
For both, working at the cemetery isn’t just about steady work. It’s led to them understanding each other more deeply.
“I always knew my dad was a hard worker,” Cesar Lucero said. “But until I got here and saw how he worked, I realized he does work great. He takes pride in his job.”
Miguel, 71, has worked at Fairhaven for 37 years. Cesar, now 37, joined him in 2018.
“I was working somewhere else, but that job wasn’t going anywhere so my father asked me,” Cesar Lucero said. “I was hesitant at first, because you know, it’s a cemetery. But I decided to go for it and I’ve been here almost eight years now.”
Where once he worked moving pianos, Cesar Lucero now is a cemetery services specialist helping locate plots of land, prepare burial sites and making sure services run smoothly for grieving families.
Miguel Lucero got the job so many years ago through a friend, Cesar Lucero explained, translating for his father.
Cemetery Services Specialist Andreas Rodriguez, left, has been at Fairhaven Memorial Park and Mortuary in Santa Ana since 2018. His son Omar, right, started working with his father in 2022 as a ground specialist, on Thursday, June 5, 2025. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG) Omar Rodriguez, a ground specialist since 2022, talks about working with his father, Andreas Rodriguez, a cemetery services specialist, at Fairhaven Memorial Park and Mortuary in Santa Ana, on Friday, June 6, 2025. Andreas has been at Fairhaven since 2018. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG) Andreas Rodriguez, a cemetery services specialist since 2018, at Fairhaven Memorial Park and Mortuary in Santa Ana, talks about working with his son, Omar Rodriguez, a ground specialist since 2022, on Friday, June 6, 2025. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG) Grounds Specialist Sergio Brito, who has been at at Fairhaven Memorial Park and Mortuary in Santa Ana since June 2021, works alongside his son Carlos. Carlos started working with his father in Oct. 2021 as a grounds specialist. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG) Cesar Lucero, left, a cemetery services specialist, and his father, Miguel Lucero, right, a grounds specialist, both work at Fairhaven Memorial Park and Mortuary in Santa Ana, on Friday, June 6, 2025. Miguel has worked there for 37 years, and Cesar began working with his dad in 2018. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG) Miguel Lucero, a grounds specialist, at Fairhaven Memorial Park and Mortuary in Santa Ana for the past 37 years, talks about working with his son, Cesar Lucero, a cemetery services specialist, on Friday, June 6, 2025. Cesar began working with his dad in 2018. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG) Cesar Lucero, a cemetery services specialist at Fairhaven Memorial Park and Mortuary in Santa Ana, talks about working with his father, Miguel Lucero, a grounds specialist, on Friday, June 6, 2025. Cesar began working with his dad in 2018 and Miguel has worked there for 37 years. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG) Show Caption1 of 7Cemetery Services Specialist Andreas Rodriguez, left, has been at Fairhaven Memorial Park and Mortuary in Santa Ana since 2018. His son Omar, right, started working with his father in 2022 as a ground specialist, on Thursday, June 5, 2025. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG) Expand“Every little thing matters, from how you put the person in, even how you set the flower base. It makes them happy. So that kind of makes me happy, seeing them happy,” Cesar Lucero said.
The Luceros are one of three father-son teams currently working together at Fairhaven — last year on Father’s Day there were four.
Beneath the stately trees, the men quietly trim, clean and care for this 73-acre park, a place where families part, but where, unexpectedly, these fathers and sons have been brought closer together.
“We used to work together a lot when I first started here. At first, it was a little, I don’t want to say crazy, but we had to get used to seeing each other every day,” Carlos Lucero said. “Overall, it’s nice working with my father. We got closer through this work.”
Andres Rodriguez, 63, joined the crew in 2018, also pulled in by a friend. His son, Omar, 28, followed four years later, now reporting to work at the same place, even if their paths during the day don’t always cross.
“He does all the trimming, the weeding, the landscaping,” Omar Rodriguez said of his father, translating from Spanish. “I do the services, set up for the burials, trim, clean it, blow it down, make it look good for the families.”
The hardest part, he said, is supporting families during such emotional moments.
Andres Rodriguez knows their heartache. His mother died just a few months ago in Mexico, but he wasn’t able to attend the funeral because of cartel activity in the region.
Instead, he shows up each day, cemetery manager Jeff Medeiros said, helping keep the grounds dignified for other families.
Sergio Brito, 61, joined the Fairhaven team in June 2021, his son, Carlos, 29, coming aboard just a few months later.
Their bond deepened after a shared loss, said Sergio Brito, whose wife died in 2020 and is buried just across the street from where he now works.
“Almost everything changed after that,” Brito said, as Cesar Lucero translated. “In Mexico, I have all my family. But here, once my wife passed, it basically changed me. Working here has brought me closer to my kids.”
At Fairhaven, their presence adds something special to a place that was always meant to be more than a cemetery.
Founded in 1911, Fairhaven was imagined as a memorial park, one designed for the living as much as the dead. Visitors walk dogs, push strollers and even bird-watch among the Chinese elms and rare ginkgo trees. Some locals say they learned to drive here or had their first kiss beneath the shade of the park’s canopy.
On that recent Friday morning, a cool breeze rustled the grass as squirrels darted across gravesites and around tree trunks, a few brave enough to scurry up to passing legs.
Working at Fairhaven has changed the way Cesar Lucero sees life and loss, he said.
“Nobody should take life for granted. I’ve buried children, mothers, brothers, and I have uncles here, as well, that passed,” he said.
“The cemetery has taught me a lot,” he added. “It just makes you appreciate life a little bit more, love each other more.”
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