Folsom Family Fed Up With Rampant Weeds Covering Headstones In Springfield

Follow CBSPHILLY Facebook  | Twitter

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Some local families are forced to take matters into their own hands as weeds grow rampant on top of their loved one's graves in Springfield.

"The last thing we want to do is come with weed whackers, lawn mowers, cutters," said Christopher Price who has been doing yard work with his wife at Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery.

Saints Peter and Paul's website boasts a place that will remain "pristinely beautiful through the work of devoted landscaping crews."  Instead, photos show weeds and grass have swallowed entire patches of headstones.

And for this couple from Folsom, their reason for being here is deeply personal.

"My wife and I try to regularly visit the cemetery to visit our babies," he said.

Married in 2015, the Prices had two miscarriages.

"Towards the end of that first year, we lost our first baby in March, that was 2016. She got pregnant again the end of that year and we lost our son in early 2017," said Price.

CBS3 contacted Stonemor Partners, the company that in 2013 entered into an outsourcing agreement to manage Philadelphia Archdiocesan cemeteries.

"In this instance, we have fallen short of our standards. We take this matter very seriously and the concerns raised are being addressed," said a spokesperson in a statement.

Price said he paid more than $4,000 for the plot which includes perpetual care, meaning the grass gets cut.

"If they're not willing to actually use that money to pay the groundskeepers or hire groundskeepers to keep up, if I have to keep mowing, pay me," he said.