MEMPHIS, Tenn. — This past Mother’s Day was upsetting for one Mid-South woman. When she went to visit her Mother’s grave site she couldn’t find her burial spot.
So she reached out to WREG.
Imagine placing a headstone in a spot for your loved one and then, when you come back, it’s no longer there.
That’s what one woman says happened to her. Now she says it’s hard for her to come back to the Shelby County Cemetery when she does not know where her mother is.
Precious Goldsmith says her mother was buried at the Shelby County Cemetery seven years ago.
“She was here. You can actually see the crease of it, and see how my whole finger can fit through there,” she said. “You know people steal headstones and then flip it over and re-engrave them.”
She came to visit her mother this year for Mother’s Day and discovered nothing but dirt.
“It kind of defeats the purpose of coming out here. It makes me made to come out here, because I don’t even know who I’m grieving or talking to.”
Since the cemetery is a place where you can bury your loved one for free, people like Danielle Briggs knows finding her son can be hard.
“Sometimes I can come out here when they freshly cut the grass and it’s easier to find.”
Mark Seay is in charge of the cemetery and says all of the deceased are numbered. Although it was allowed years ago, headstones are prohibited but the ones in the ground get to stay.
He says what may have happened was Goldsmith’s mother’s headstone could have been covered by grass and dirt from mowers and rain.
But to help get to the root of this problem, Seay and another worker began to dig and dig until finally Goldsmith’s marking number.
It’s not only a number, but this means she will now know where her mother is.
The cemtery workers say they will be glad to show Goldsmith where her marker number was found.
