Good morning, readers.
On April 1, Durham residents Meg Solera and her husband José pulled through the gates of Maplewood Cemetery to visit their granddaughter’s grave as they’ve done weekly for the past four years. They noticed someone who seemed to be in a heated discussion with a groundskeeper.
When they parked the car, they realized why. Almost all of the decorations on gravesites across the cemetery had disappeared, including the mementos that the Soleras had kept around their granddaughter’s marker since she was buried in 2020.
“It felt like losing her all over again,” Solera says.
Maplewood is one of two cemeteries that the City of Durham operates. According to a city division manager, cleanups like this happen every spring and fall.
But Solera says this was the first time this happened in the four years she’s been coming to Maplewood. And Carlotta Dunagin, who reached out to the INDY after this story was published online last week, and whose son and grandson are buried at Maplewood, says this was the first cleanup she experienced in seven years.
Because the cemetery didn’t issue a notice letter, Solera and Dunagin say, the experience left them traumatized.
A grief expert says the city’s approach is concerning and unheard of.
We’ve got a new issue out for you today online and in print. Have a good Wednesday.
—Lena
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Today’s weather
Sunny with a high of 85 degrees.
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