A local widow who recorded cellphone video of sentimental items being thrown out is speaking only to Action News Jax. Angela Kerr said she found personal items from graves piled up outside the dumpster at Riverside Memorial Park Cemetery.
This area is supposed to be a sanctuary, a place of comfort after losing a loved one. That’s what Angela Kerr hoped for, but not what she’s received.
“I’ve been robbed. This is a place where I should be able to come and have some peaceful time,” said Kerr.
Kerr told Action News Jax reporter Kaitlyn Chana she lost her soulmate in 2013 to lung cancer. Often, she’d spend time at his gravesite to find comfort, but the unthinkable happened in April of 2015.
“Crosses that I put out there, angels, flags -- it was all gone and everyone else’s stuff was gone. I asked a maintenance worker where all of his stuff is,” said Kerr.
Kerr said the worker pointed to a shed. She walked over there and fell to her knees and that’s when she knew she wanted to record video of what she couldn’t believe she was seeing.
“That’s when I went behind there and found angels, flags and all of those mementos -- headstones, even family pictures,” said Kerr.
Kerr saw Chana's original story about another Jacksonville family being upset over having their mother's gravesite go from looking beautiful to being trashed by workers.
“I saw on the news where the young lady mother’s angels were missing, and I’m, like, 'They’re doing it again,'” said Kerr.
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For the third time, Chana addressed Kerr's concerns with management. She called and sent emails that prompted the corporate office to send the following statement on Friday about this incident:
“As part of our commitment to all of our client families, we guard their privacy and because of this, we do not discuss specific client concerns with the media. Instead it is our policy to work to resolve any possible concerns directly with client families.”
Kerr said the manager told her all of the items shot in her video had been removed during a cleanup sweep. She explained to us she made it clear that she didn’t want maintenance workers to ever touch her husband’s gravesite again. But Kerr said the items she set out this week have already been removed.
“Leave our loved ones' stuff alone. We put it here for a reason. It’s not hurting anybody and it’s not trashing the cemetery. Leave it alone. That’s all we ask,” said Kerr.
There are signs posted throughout the cemetery saying you’ll be fined if you remove sentimental items. Family members with loved ones at the cemetery told Action News Jax they wished workers would respect their own signs.