Mud pile dumped on grandparents’ Canley grave

[dutchman]

A devastated granddaughter says her family’s Christmas was ruined when they discovered several feet of mud dumped on top of her grandparents’ grave.



The heartbreaking discovery was made on Christmas Eve by family members visiting the grave of Eunice and Bob Hawkins at Canley Cemetery.

Matters were compounded by the fact Mrs Hawkins had only passed away in October and the Stoke Aldermoor couple would have celebrated their wedding anniversary on Christmas Eve.

Michelle Bolton, 34, from Ernesford Grange, said the trip to the grave should have been a significant event for the family.

The majority of Eunice’s three children, five grandchildren and five great grandchildren were due to visit the grave on the day.

She said: “It was on our minds all through Christmas Day. It has had a massive impact on the whole family. Christmas Eve was their wedding anniversary, it was a big event.

“My nan spent a lot of time keeping my granddad’s grave extremely well maintained and we wanted to try and keep that up for her.

“She was in love with Christmas and flowers and it made it even more difficult that we could not provide for her what she had provided for us.

“Every member of the family struggled to deal with it. Not only was it the first Christmas without her but all the flowers we bought for her grave were around the house.”



Upset relatives talked with members of staff at the cemetery who apologised and explained there was a burial taking place next to the grave on Friday, December 27.

As workers did not work Christmas Day and Boxing Day the earth had to be removed in advance on Christmas Eve and the only convenient place to put it was on top of Eunice’s neighbouring grave.

Michelle said: “I don’t know that there’s anything they can do now, it’s not going to bring back Christmas or make it any better.

“We would have at least like to have been told what to expect then we could have avoided what we saw and we could have told people not to visit.

“We were told they do not contact people anymore because details are usually out of date, but she was only buried in October.”

A spokesman for Coventry City Council, which maintains the cemetery, said: “We were sorry that the family were upset on Christmas Eve when visiting their grandmother’s grave.

"The majority of new graves are purchased for two interments and, as in this case, when the second interment takes place the grave is usually surrounded by other graves.

“This means that the excavated soil is placed onto one or two neighbouring graves – this is the approach taken in cemeteries up and down the country and is done for two reasons.

"Firstly it is not practical to move large volumes of soil across multiple graves to remove it from a section and secondly some families choose to backfill the soil themselves so it needs to be as near as possible to the excavated grave.

“The soil is usually there for one or two days but due to Christmas it was in place for three days on this occasion.

“The funeral has now taken place so when the family next visit they should find everything back to normal.”

[FairMay]

It's well known the Council do this.