Letter: Actions at cemetery more than disrespect

To the editor:

This letter is in response to a recent incident that happened at the Hamner Cemetery in Amity.

My family has several family members buried there. We have taken care of the graves of our loved ones there since 1969. We have taken care of them because no one else has. We mow the grass, tend the graves, pull weeds, plant flowers and try to keep it from falling into disrepair. We have tried throughout the years to get whoever is responsible for the cemetery to do these things, to no avail. We feel that since it’s our family buried there we should take care of the graves ourselves. When left to the responsible parties, it has been shamelessly disregarded.

The incident I am referring to happened near the end of August. While on a visit to the cemetery we noticed it had been mowed. But in doing so all the flowers, shepherds hooks and grave adornments had been removed as well as a grave marker. A large pile of trash was placed in front of the gate. While looking through this pile we saw there was no metal in the pile.

Why would anyone take all the flowers and personal mementos off the graves and take the metal out of this pile? We believe this metal was taken to the scrap yard. This is grave robbing. We assume whoever mowed that day was paid a fair wage. We didn’t know that anything there was up for grabs. It looks like they forgot to take the metal gate and fence that surrounds the cemetery.

This story appears in the print edition of Daily Journal. Subscribers can read the entire story online by signing in here or in our e-Edition by clicking here.