Symbols of memorials removed from gravesites

Several families are furious and heartbroken tonight, after their lost loved one’s grave sites were cleared of most, if not all of the items placed around their graves.

Edith Martin: “My Daniel just passed away in April from brain cancer and I’m traumatized by this. It’s not fair.”

Edith Martin is seeing her son’s grave for the first time after hearing that most of the items around it have been removed: “We had the big shepherd hooks with fake flowers on it and butterflies because my son loved butterflies.”

Woodland Cemetery is one of 67 in Hamilton that is conducting an annual cleanup. Groundskeepers have been removing banned items from burial sites and placing them under these two trees.

Edith Martin: “Look at this you can’t even salvage what’s ours. how do I know where my stuff is over there.”

Cemetery management says this small space was crowded, which hampered maintenance. Glass containers, wooden crosses, pottery and rocks are not allowed. This grave site had its stone border removed, because it could have damaged landscaping tools. Each grave is only allowed one shepherd hook, and any plants that aren’t maintained are removed.

Edith Martin: “This used to be a beautiful garden and now it’s destroyed, totally destroyed.”

Cemetery management told me that each year they put out releases via social media and local newspapers to people who have family members buried here at the cemetery to remove the items to clear the way for spring cleaning. For Ms. Martin, who lost her son in late April, she said that she did not get the message: “Shouldn’t they have told me when I buried my son’s urn here in April. April 26, it was put in the ground, shouldn’t they have told me then?”

But unlike Edie, management says some families actually complained about the cluttered appearance of this part of the cemetery and are in favour of the change.