GREENSBORO, N.C. — A Greensboro mother is blindsided and upset after her son's grave adornments in Piedmont Memorial Park Cemetery were trashed without warning before Mother's Day weekend.
Liz Collins said she visited her son Stephon's grave plot on Friday to add more decorations, as she has done every two weeks since his death from heart failure ten months ago.
"I was making it into an angel garden," Collins said. "He was my child. I was putting all different kinds of flowers, and I was collecting all kinds of angels."
But when she arrived at her son's final resting place at the cemetery on McConnell Road, she discovered that her family's precious memorial was gone without warning, leaving behind a barren dirt plot.
The mother soon found the decorations inside a nearby trash can, stuffed in with adornments from other nearby graves.
"I had to dig it out of the trash," Collins said. "What hurt me so bad was not the flowers, but the personal stuff, the cologne, his hat, that's what hurt me. It was thrown in the trash like he was a dog. Not just him, they did a lot of people's graves down here like that."
Looking around, she also discovered new signs around the cemetery listing rules and regulations, that were previously not there or enforced.
WFMY spoke with Collins at the cemetery on Sunday. Graves closest to the street were bare, while plots farther back still had decorations on them.
One rule on the new signs says, "Decorations or flowers that become unsightly are removed weekly. As well as any decoration or flower than hinders ground maintenance."
Another rule reads, "Artificial flowers and fresh flowers may be used in permanent bases or memorial base, other forms of decorations not specifically permitted will be removed. This includes jars, bottles, cans, potted plants or ground ornaments."
Collins says she was never told about any of these rules, or warned that any cleanout would be occurring.
She told WFMY that she tried to contact the cemetery for answers, but was unable to find any contact information online.
Using public records, WFMY News 2 was able to reach the caretaker for Piedmont Memorial Park Cemetery on Sunday, who declined to comment for this story and referred us to contact the City of Greensboro for more information.
A spokesperson for the City of Greensboro told WFMY on Sunday: "This cemetery is privately owned, so the City has no jurisdiction outside of nuisance or zoning issues."
The code compliance office told WFMY through the spokesperson that the only issues logged are tall grass reports in June 2020 and July 2019. The city says the cemetery has had no complaints of trash & waste violations on the property.
The Collins family wants to warn others who have grave plots on site, and would like to be reimbursed for the cost of their trashed and damaged items.
"My son's items are not trash," Collins said. "What kind of heart do they have? They are cold hearted. They are very cold hearted. How would you feel if that was your child, your loved one? Especially on Mother's Day holiday."
Stay connected to local, national, and breaking news: Download the WFMY News 2 app.
►Text the word APP to 336-379-5775