Past Lives Matter

“Past Lives Matter” is but one of dozens of signs that were placed in the Rest Haven Cemetery in Avon, Ohio, this past weekend.  You can read about and see a news video here of the issues with that cemetery that have family members of people buried there upset.

The cause that is upsetting relatives is the fact that the cemetery continues to flood putting headstones underwater and causing other problems at the StoneMor Partners owned property.  Disgruntled family members have formed a Facebook group entitled, “Rescuing Rest Haven Cemetery” which, according to the article, has over 1200 members.

Again, according to the article, Michelle Gehring is one whose parents are buried on the property.  She says, “there’s drainage issues on the property and believes the owner of the cemtery should have some integrity and fix it soon. . . .it is emotionally upsetting.”

StoneMor Partners issued a statement in April that included the following, “In consultation with engineering professionals, we are working on the details of an action plan to remedy flooding and related issues”.

The Ohio Cemetery Dispute Resolution Commission has been apprised of the situation and has recommended to StoneMor Partners that they present a plan for the cemetery by June 13.

Funeral Director Daily take:  We don’t know if anybody knows for sure where all the water is coming from but we sympathize with family members who do not have the situation at a cemetery that they envisioned when they purchased their lots or buried their loved ones.  It is always hard to come to a resolution on what to do, especially, once the differing sides have hardened their stances.

Hopefully, StoneMor Partners will present a proper remediation plan to the affected family members on the June 13 date.

Related – A couple other cemetery items in the news today:

The United States Customs and Border Protection has indicated that the “to be built” Border Wall will not interfere with the historic Eli Jackson Cemetery in the South Rio Grande Valley.  You can read about that here.

Here is an update on the St. Matthew’s Cemetery in West Seneca, New York.  As you may remember, about Easter of this year the cemetery was forced to move about 215 casketed remains for what they say was emergency maintenance and prevention of the caskets slipping into the Cayuga Creek when a section of the cemetery was in peril of doing so.  Turns out that New York law does not allow them to move caskets without an eight day notice to the next of kin.

The cemetery is going to court on June 13 to ask a judge to approve the dis-interments after the fact.  Without this approval there is potential class-action suit status by the family members for not being notified.

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2 Comments

  1. Cheryl L McElroy on June 5, 2019 at 7:00 pm

    With regard to Resthaven: It’s not just water that’s the problem. It was careless, sloppy maintenance workers who ran over grave markers, damaging them, and left ruts everywhere. Went to visit my mama’s grave today, and gave Jeremy the new manager an earful. I said that if I had known that Resthaven was this irresponsible and careless I would have never allowed my mom to be buried there, nor would I have purchased a plot. For the money we pay to get buried there, you figure they could use it for maintenance. I said that every year I’ve visited since she passed in 2003, it’s gotten worse and people are tired of it. I walked him to my mom’s grave and showed him the deplorable condition. As you can see, it’s covered in mud. I lifted out the permanent vase and showed him the mud and water under neath. It’s like my mom is covered by a damned ocean. He explained that he was just assigned there, and that the previous manager and maintenance crew were gone. He insisted that changes, such as new drainage systems and better maintenance were coming. Only time will tell if he was just blowing smoke up my ass or if he’s sincere. I assured him that I would be coming back in a few weeks to see if anything has improved. We’ll see.



  2. Patricia Reedy on June 5, 2019 at 5:43 pm

    Yes they raised my moms headstone maybe but back under water again im so pissed so what did they really do besides nothing.



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