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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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Widows Visit Local Cemetery |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Wednesday, 27 June 2007 |
West Virginia - For one Clear Creek woman, the widows she claims to have encountered at Blue Ridge Memorial Gardens in Beckley are not the type that have any business lingering around a cemetery. These grieving widows, you see, have eight legs and a red hourglass shape on their bodies.
Sue Shrewsbury said that she was visiting the resting places of several relatives on two different days during the week leading up to Memorial Day when she had some trouble dislodging one of the vases on the grave markers. When she sought assistance from one of the groundskeepers, Shrewsbury was stunned by his admonition: We have black widow spiders. "That totally freaked me out, being that they already knew and he warned us," she explained.
After the employee retrieved a tool to extricate the vase, Shrewsbury didn't expect the same implement to be used to also pull a living member of one of West Virginia's two poisonous arachnids from the ground.
"He popped it (the vase) out and shone a flashlight and there was one (a spider) in the hole that holds the vase. He told me that 80 percent of the vases that they take out, they find one. Sure enough, there was one in the biggest part of them," said Shrewsbury.
"Of the six (graves visited by Shrewsbury, her mother and sister), four had black-widow spiders in them. It's a serious problem. To me, they know this is a problem, but they're not posting any warnings. Children go there. If you have a child that's sick or has a low immune system, who knows what could happen?"
While Jody G. Harris - area vice president of Blue Ridge Memorial Gardens -- does not dispute Shrewsbury's complaint, he insisted that he has received no such information from anyone else. Indeed, Shrewsbury conceded that the only people with whom she has spoken at the cemetery were a group of groundskeepers. All they offered her, she said, was a can of bug spray.
"We're not aware of any issue, and we would want to know that. We take every complaint as if it is legitimate and work through every one of those," Harris said.
"Bring (any complaint) to us, so we can rectify the issue or meet the need that this family member may have. We're not aware of any problem with black widow spiders. Our primary goal is to serve families. That's what we're here for, and that's what we're interested in doing. We always gladly and positively address all issues and complaints just as we respond to all good things that we always hear from the customers and families that we're privileged to serve."
Shrewsbury recounted that one of the groundskeepers told her that the cemetery employees "know we got plenty of those," referring to the unwanted spiders.
Harris pointed out that people must remember that the vases are in the ground and are exposed to the elements. "We appreciate whatever avenue families feel they need to take to inform us of issues," Harris noted. Shrewsbury views herself as simply a messenger, adding that she has no desire to cause problems for the cemetery or those who frequent the grounds.
"I don't want to cause trouble for Blue Ridge or anyone else, but I don't want anyone to get hurt if I can prevent it," she said. "I spread the word. Anyone you know that you know will be out there, make sure they know. They should at least post a warning sign. From now on, I'm taking a can of spray with me."
Harris urged anyone who encounters a similar problem while there to immediately contact the director of cemetery operations at 256-8608.
http://www.cnpapers.com/index.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
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” Henry David Thoreau, 1854
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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