Mourners Cry, Demand Answers After Cleburne Cemetery Crackdown
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CLEBURNE (CBSDFW.COM) - Officials with the city cemetery of Cleburne are enforcing its code requiring all burial plots remain free from any objects that aren't on headstones.
The crackdown is weighing heavily on families who have loved ones buried there and visit often.
"After it was all done it made me sick to have to look at it," said grieving mother Alysha Blair. "Because I didn't want him to think that we did it on purpose or that we wanted to do it. Or that I just gave up… because I didn't."
Blair is referring to her infant son's plot whose gravesite was one of many now stripped of its heartfelt mementos like toys and stones picked up on family trips.
"This was kind of a way for us to all stay together. I started decorating slowly," said Blair of the headstone.
The cherished trinkets aren't considered "clutter" by people like Blair, who visit the cemetery to mourn, reflect, hope, pray and even connect to their loved one who has passed on. Each memento has a story, a valued place and meaning to whomever placed it their with care.
But city officials said the objects interfere with mowing and general upkeep of the cemetery.
"Glassware -- things that were put on in the spaces -- mowers and weed eaters hit them and they go flying. And just overall, the cemetery is supposed to be uniform in appearance," said Burton Barr with Cleburne Parks and Recreation.
Families have offered to sign contracts to keep the plots clean themselves. But the city said that doesn't offer any guarantees generations to come will maintain the plots.
Plus, according to Barr, "there were a lot of people who want the cemeteries brought into compliance."
For now, as each grave loses character, and starts to look more and more like the one next to it, families can only hope the city has a change of heart.
"I pray that there is. I wish that it could be," said Blair in tears.
City officials said any items left on grave sites will go in the trash by Wednesday.
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