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Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
A Taphophilia Thank You...
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Family members of crematory victims find comfort in each other |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Saturday, 20 November 2004 |
By Gary Tanner
LaFAYETTE - Before Feb. 15, 2002, Lizella residents Jannie Moore and Gloria McDuffie had never met Teri Crawford.
Shortly after that date, however, they discovered they both had relatives whose bodies had been sent to Tri-State Crematory in Noble, and that hundreds of discarded bodies were being pulled from the facility's rural compound by state officials.
Moore's husband, Kirby Moore, who is McDuffie's stepfather, died and his body was sent to the crematory. Crawford's brother Robert's body was also sent there for cremation.
Neither family has ever learned for sure if either man's body was among those discarded.
Friday, on the same day former crematory operator Ray Brent Marsh pleaded guilty to 787 felony charges related to the dumping of the bodies, the three women discovered they now have something else in common.
They are neighbors.
"I had no idea we were so close, but you're just 10 minutes away," McDuffie said as the three women hugged after the hearing in Walker County Superior Court.
Crawford moved from the Chattanooga area to the Macon area about a year ago. The women exchanged telephone numbers so they could call each other when they got back to Middle Georgia.
About 60 members of families whose loved ones' bodies were - or may have been - discarded at the crematory came to LaFayette on Friday for the hearing.
Living an ordeal that is now nearly three years old has been made easier by leaning on each other, family members said.
"Only people who have been through it know what it has been like," McDuffie said.
Moore echoed that sentiment.
"It has helped to have other people to talk to, and we are good friends with some of the people we've met," she said.
Crawford said she has met many family members and that many have stayed in touch with each other throughout the recovery of the bodies and Marsh's criminal case.
"There is a core group that have really stayed in touch, and others not so much," she said.
The families have lived with the unresolved case for two years and nine months and are within 10 weeks of resolution. They will get an opportunity to speak in court about their feelings at hearings Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 when Judge James G. Bodiford will decide whether to accept Friday's plea.
Family members have vented their anger over the situation with each other, cried in each other's arms and laughed together.
On an Internet message board set up for them, family members discussed topics ranging from their feelings about the Marsh case to gardening and family activities.
One thing many family members had said they wanted from the criminal trial was answers about how and why their loved ones' bodies were discarded rather than cremated.
Friday, Marsh turned to the gallery and read a prepared statement in which he apologized to the families and to his own family.
He told them he could not answer why he did not perform cremations on hundreds of bodies.
"Because I don't know the answer," he said.
The apology rang hollow for the Middle Georgia residents.
"I don't think he meant it; his lawyers told him to say it," Moore said.
"He made this elaborate apology to his family," Crawford said.
All three women said they plan to return for the sentencing hearing to speak about how the incident has affected them.
"It doesn't ever go away," Moore said.
Leatha Shropshire of LaFayette, who is among the core group Crawford spoke of, held a poster outside the courtroom showing a photo of her mother, Helen McKin, whose body was among those identified.
"I want him to remember my mother's face," she said.
http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/10228757.htm |
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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
“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying; And this same flower that smiles today, To-morrow will be dying.” Robert Herrick (1591-1674) Fro
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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