Widow urges cemetery visitors to show respect after thieves target husband’s grave

A visit to a loved one’s grave took a turn for the worse for an Ipswich woman who found missing items had been moved to another grave

Avril Brown, Ipswich, is urging cemetery visitors not to remove vases from the graves of other people's loved ones.

A VISIT to a loved one's grave took a turn for the worse for an Ipswich widow who found her husband's grave had been the target of theft.

After finding the missing item on another person's grave, Avril Brown is urging other cemetery visitors to be considerate of fellow mourners.

When Mrs Brown visited the Warrill Park Lawn Cemetery on Sunday morning, flowers in tow, she discovered a vase she had left on her husband's grave had been removed.

"We went out yesterday to take flowers to my mum but took flowers to all our loved ones (at the cemetery)," Mrs Brown said.

"My son noticed the vase was missing (from my husband's grave)."

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After 15 minutes of searching, they discovered the vase on another grave, with artificial flowers inside.

It wasn't the first time the vase had been moved to another grave.

"It's happened twice before - once we found it in the gardener's shed and there was another time where we had to walk through the whole of the cemetery before we finally found it," Mrs Brown said.

"It was a fair way away that time - they had to have taken it off my husband's grave and taken it to where it was found."

For a trip already fraught with emotion, arriving at the cemetery with flowers only to find the vase missing is enough to turn the trip sour.

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"(It makes me feel) pretty mad and upset at the fact people can go and do that sort of thing," Mrs Brown said.

"I think people just need to know those vases are not there to be taken - we pay for those vases and (the cemetery) supplies the plastic green ones for people who haven't got a vase.

"We take our own water so we don't have to walk around looking for taps - we come pretty well prepared as I can't walk very far."

Mrs Brown has been visiting the Warrill Park Lawn Cemetery for 23 years since her husband passed away.

"We go out at least once a month or so to visit my mother, father, my husband and my grandson," she said.

"It's been a couple of years since it happened the last time but it's pretty annoying."

 

Read more news by Ebony Graveur.

Originally published as Widow urges cemetery visitors to show respect after thieves target husband’s grave