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Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
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20 years of grief at wrong grave |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Sunday, 31 October 2004 |
Neal Snowdon
A COUPLE have been grieving for their daughter for 20 years - at the "wrong grave".
Jane Shepley and her former husband Gary Goulden lost baby Kerry when she was just six weeks old in 1984 and have been tending what they thought was her grave ever since.
But when their 10-year-old son, Adam, died in a road accident, they discovered that they might have been going to the wrong graveside.
They asked for Adam to be buried in the same plot as his sister, but the couple were horrified as their son's coffin was lowered into a plot a few feet away.
Officials at Manchester's Southern Cemetery insist they reopened the correct plot and that the family are mistaken about Kerry's grave.
The distraught parents are now desperate to find out whether Adam has been buried in the wrong plot - or whether they have spent two decades tending the wrong grave for Kerry.
They have hired a solicitor to seek Home Office permission to reopen the grave which contains Adam's coffin.
Jane, 44, is convinced the undertakers opened the wrong grave. But the cemetery maintains the grave she has been tending for 20 years is empty.
"I went to Kerry's grave the day after the funeral," said Jane, "and I could tell from the fresh soil which grave was hers. I went every day for two weeks after her funeral and I have been going regularly ever since.
"We placed a vase there with her name on, we regularly replace the flowers and the wooden cross, and we put a little fence around the grave."
The family, from Wythenshawe, contacted Levenshulme-based funeral directors Charles Robb and Sons and told them they wanted Adam buried in the same plot as Kerry. But at the funeral, they realised the opened grave was not the one they expected.
"I asked the cemetery staff and undertakers to let me see Kerry's coffin, but they wouldn't let me," said Jane. "One of the cemetery staff came out with a book of grave records and told me the right grave had been opened.
"But different people have said different things. The funeral directors say the plot we thought was Kerry's had an old person in it and they have given differing descriptions of what was in the plot that was opened for Adam's burial.
"But the cemetery staff say the one we thought was Kerry's is a completely empty plot. But they have also said other things which do not make sense.
"We need to know the truth and reopening Adam's grave is the only way."
Jeannette Wilson, of Irlam-based solicitors Bannister Preston, will now apply to the Home Office for the grave to be reopened.
A Home Office spokesman said: "An application has to be made for a licence to remove a body from a grave.
"It would fall on the Home Office, and ultimately the Home Secretary, to decide whether to issue such a licence."
A spokesman for Charles Robb and Sons said they felt it "inappropriate to comment".
A spokesman for Manchester city council, which runs Southern Cemetery, said: "Our records show Adam was interred in a grave where Kerry had been buried.
"We now believe that Miss Shepley and Mr Goulden have been visiting the wrong grave for many years. But, unfortunately, we were unaware of this.
"We will do everything we can to assist the family."
Mr Goulden was unavailable for comment.
http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/s/135/135231_20_years_of_grief_at_wrong_grave.html |
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“Where do you come from? The dust. Where do you go to? The grave.” Jason Robards as Charles Hallo
Shirtless and Sculpted
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