Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010
Letter to the Editor
Column brings Comfort
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I wanted to comment on the column “I have a concern” by Jan Huntsinger in the Jan. 30 edition of the Journal.
My husband has been buried in the Blue Springs Cemetery since February of 1989. He was only 33-years-old when he passed, so I’ve spent a lot of time in the cemetery since then. And let me tell you, things have changed.
Like Jan I chose a spot in the back, next to the fence that separated the cemetery from a small pasture and there was a small shade tree as an added incentive. I purchased two plots, planning to be there myself someday and all in all just thought it was a nice place. No one would be behind us, the tree added to the landscape and we would only have “neighbors” on three sides.
In the last 20 years, the tree has been removed, no more shade. The pasture now holds split level homes with privacy fences actually touching the cemetery fence. I can see swing sets and hear children screaming each time I make a visit. But the worst is this, imagine my surprise on one of my visits last summer to find a new “neighbor” buried between my husband’s headstone and the fence!
It was a new grave, literally “wedged” between my husband’s headstone and the cemetery fence. As with Jan’s observation, the only way that man could have been buried is with people trampling all over my husband’s grave and the other graves around him. There is absolutely no way a tent or chairs for the “new” man’s service could have been put in place without having my husband or the people buried next to him as the “guest of honor” inside the tent.
The new grave is so close to my husband’s that I could see where dirt, from digging it, had been piled against the back of our headstone and then swept away. Not cleaned away, I could still see it where the dirt on the grass and base of the stone, just swept away.
I seriously don’t know how they got a backhoe in that spot to dig, it just couldn’t fit.
As far as I’m concerned it’s a disaster, but what is one to do? I certainly can’t ask them to dig someone up to make me happy.
I was glad that Jan put a humorous spin on her situation. I’ve tried to do the same. I suppose the grave and marker are really for the benefit of the living but it just seems so wrong.
Had I known how the situation would change, I would have made another choice.
Please tell Jan I feel her pain and I appreciate that someone else has the same feelings that I do about the Blue Springs Cemetery.
She is not alone.
Vana Sweetland, Blue Springs
