Who tends loved ones' graves? Greenwood damage demonstrates the challenge

Monday’s storm with strong winds blew down a pecan tree, causing damage to grave sites at Thomas Cemetery in Siracusaville.

The mishap points to a major challenge in the maintenance of cemeteries: Who’s responsible for general care and repairing damage in cemeteries as they last decades, or even a century or more, beyond the lives of those who founded them?

The cemetery is known in the community as Greenwood Cemetery.

Siracusaville resident Troy Clark posted a video on line about the damage that occurred due to the storm.

“My sister called and told me that they had a tree fall,” Clark said. “Me and my wife came out yesterday. She wanted me to go live on Facebook. But I never did that before, that’s why I recorded it and posted it up.”

Clark has several family members buried there.

Getting help to clear out the damage was somewhat problematic. The cemetery is private and the owner is unknown.

“When I posted up the video, a lot of people were coming on telling me that they were making phone calls to councilmen telling them,” Clark said.

And the response Clark received is that someone would be out there Tuesday morning.

Since the cemetery is privately owned, assistance from the parish was only limited.

Tree damage and obstruction only in the parish’s right of way were being cleared Tuesday by workers with St. Mary Parish Public Works Department, said St. Mary Parish Road Maintenance & Equipment Supervisor John “Booker” Davis.

“We don’t move stuff on private property,” Davis said. “And the right of way only comes inside of the ditch where the utility pole is located.

“But if they would pull it out and bring it in our right of way, then we can assist them,” Davis said.

Private ownership also means it’s the responsibility of the owner to clear the rest of the tree and debris lying across broken headstones.

According to one of the cemetery caretakers, Leroy Trimm of Siracusaville, all of the members of the Thomas family originally affiliated with the cemetery are dead.

“We take care of the graveyard but we don’t know who owns it,” Trimm said. “My mom and others used to take care of it before they passed. And we just in turn, took it over.”

“We’ve been here all of our lives and don’t know who owns the cemetery,” Clark said.

As far as Siracusaville resident Alvin Jones can recall, this is the second time a fallen tree caused damage to headstones.

The first time a tree fell, it busted open the headstone on his mother’s grave site, Jones said. It cost $1,500 to fix the headstone.

He, too, has additional family members buried at the cemetery.

The cemetery is not insured, Trimm said.

So, families are responsible for fixing any damage to grave sites.

Trimm said the tree should be up by Tuesday evening thanks to a community effort. And plans were for the debris to be placed by the roadside for pick up.

“We all pitch in and keep it clean,” Trimm said. “There is no one person in charge. ... I went and cut it up. And the guys are going to come with a machine and pull the other piece out.

Trimm and others will assess damage today to see what needs to be done in order to get headstones repaired.