Dorchester woman left devastated after finding rubble piled on mum's grave (From Dorset Echo)

Dorchester woman left devastated after finding rubble piled on mum's grave

10:00am Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

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A DEVASTATED Dorch-ester woman was left in tears after she discovered her mum’s grave covered in rubble on Mother’s Day.

Jean Dear went to visit the grave of her mother Dorothy White – known to everyone as Millie – in the Weymouth Avenue cemetery in town.

Mrs White passed away four years ago from cancer at the age of 72.

Mrs Dear said: “I went in with my daughter Tracy and as we were walking up to my mum’s grave I could just see there was a pile of earth there.

“My first thought was that they had dug her up and not told us about it, that’s what it looked like.

“When we got there we found another grave by the side of it had been dug up and they had piled the earth on top of my mum’s grave.

“It was also on the headstone where two vases are, so we couldn’t leave any flowers there.”

Hospital cleaner Mrs Dear said her sisters Jackie Fogden and Denise Turnbull had also gone up with family to put some flowers by their mother’s headstone and were also left distraught by what they encountered.

Mrs Dear, 55, said: “It would have been bad at any time but when we you go up on Mother’s Day it’s a bit thoughtless of them.

“I was so upset, it did ruin my day.”

Mrs Dear’s nephew Gary Turnbull, 34, added: “It only takes a bit of common sense to think that people are going to visit on Mother’s Day and want to put flowers out.

“It was upsetting for the whole family as we went up there with flowers and everything ready.

“There was space for them to put the rubble the other side of the grave.”

Dorchester Town Council clerk Dennis Holmes said it was ‘unfortunate’ but ‘unavoidable’ that occasionally when graves in the Weymouth Avenue cemetery were dug up there was nowhere else to put the earth but on other graves.

He said that measures were always taken to ensure the graves were properly protected and no lasting damage was done when earth was placed on top.

Mr Holmes, who offered his apologies to Mrs Dear, said as well as exhuming a body on Friday last week, another grave which neighboured Mrs White’s had been opened prior to a funeral taking place this week.

He said: “I am sorry that she was upset.

“It is unfortunate that these things are from time to time unavoidable.

“There is nowhere else, especially in a cemetery like Weymouth Avenue which is nearly full, to put the soil but on nearby graves.

“If there was another way of doing it cost effectively then we would do it.

“It is unfortunate that it coincided with Mother’s Day but funerals happen throughout the year.”