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City digs 3 wrong graves for family |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Wednesday, 09 August 2006 |
August 9, 2006
By ALAN GUENTHER
Courier-Post Staff
CAMDEN - Even the dead are being neglected in struggling Camden, the surviving relatives of Ivonne Rosa said. The family is upset because the city dug graves in the wrong places -- on three separate occasions -- for three members of Rosa's family, all in the same city-owned cemetery.
"We feel disrespected," said Ama'Donna Marquez, Rosa's 24-year-old daughter. The family also said the graveyard is overrun with weeds, broken bottles and poison ivy.
The city acknowledges the error, but "we don't know what happened yet," said Patrick Keating, director of public works, whose department is in charge of the cemetery.
After a long illness from sickle cell anemia, Rosa herself was buried Tuesday next to her mother and father in the New Camden Cemetery at Ferry and Mount Ephraim avenues.
She is finally resting in peace. But it has been a stressful and chaotic journey, her family members say.
In 1994, the city dug the grave in the wrong area of the cemetery for Rosa's father. Ten years later, when her mother died, the city made the same mistake.
When it happened again Tuesday, Rosa's family called the Courier-Post.
Part of the confusion, Keating said, is many of the city's records for the cemetery were destroyed in a fire in the early 1990s.
The city now relies on a handful of index cards to keep track of burial plots, Keating said.
"There is no budget for maintenance," he said.
The city uses labor by prisoners to clean up the cemetery, when prisoners are available.
A few years ago, a private contractor discovered a part of a human skull while digging a grave. Other than that foul-up, the city has had no other problems with the cemetery that he is aware, Keating said.
Rosa's family plots are in Section Four, near the back of the cemetery.
"No plots were supposed to be sold there," Keating said.
It's an area where paupers may have been buried years ago in unmarked graves.
The private contractor -- Moore's Burial Services of Westville -- dug the Rosa family graves in Section Three, where graves were supposed to be sold, Keating said. The grave digger, Danny Moore, could not be reached for comment.
The city has no record of selling burial plots to the Rosa family, Keating said. The records may have been destroyed in the fire.
Marquez's cousin, Bethsai Townsend of Lindenwold, said the family became "very emotional" when asked to stand in the sun for five hours before the city dug another grave in the right location.
Rosa had purchased 10 burial plots for about $3,000 in the early 1990s, shortly after she contracted sickle cell anemia, Ama'Donna Marquez said. She wanted her family members to be buried together.
Thomas May, director of the May Funeral Home in Camden, acknowledged the three errors and blamed the city for not keeping accurate records.
"We deal with cemeteries all the time," May said. "We trust them to know what they're doing."
Before Rosa was buried Tuesday, May said he contacted the city's public works department and emphasized the need to take extra care because of the two earlier errors affecting the same family.
May said several of his messages were left on voice mail and his calls were not returned.
"We have apologized to the family. We are trying to get to the bottom of this," City Council President Angel Fuentes said.
Gabriel Marquez, Rosa's 20-year-old son, arrived in Camden on July 29 after traveling four days from Iraq, where he is serving in the U.S. Army. He visited the cemetery before the funeral. He complained about the condition of the cemetery.
"The weeds and the poison ivy were as tall as I was," he said.
On Wednesday, Rosa's grave was covered with bare dirt, tire tracks and a broken bottle. A partially deflated Mylar balloon said, "P.S. I Love You." Pink and white flowers wilted in the sun.
"It's not right," said Ama'Donna Marquez, who said she would like problems at the cemetery fixed before anyone else in the family dies.
"I don't want to go through this stuff again," she said, "if something happens to the rest of us."
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060809/NEWS01/60809031/1004/LIVING |
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