I and my wife just got back from placing sprays on the graves of my In-laws.
5 years back the cemetary drove their backhoe across the bronzed Plaques of the dead and broke the marble under them. On our next trip up (It is a two hour ride) we saw my wifes parents Bronze plaque and marble base were bent and broken.This was Christmas . We went back at Easter and it wasn’t fixed —this time,We did not leave until the cemetary had fixed it while we waited.
We were there today and the others that were bent and broken 5 years ago, were still bent and broken as their families had never been back to see that they were fixed.
Thats a damned shame, but like having a parent in the nursing home, if you don’t visit often, they do not get the same care as those who do.
I might just add that an endowment for perpetual care does not last forever.
Certainly they were supposed to,but they too are being subjected to the same economic forces that your private saving account is subject too.
That savings that you put away intending to live a good life off the interest of ,is being eaten up by an interest rate of .50 or less instead of the 7% you counted on to keep you alive.The same is happening to these endowments.
The money that would have been there with a good interest rate is being eaten up by the lower rate, higher costs for the fuel for the lawnmowers, and labor for the contractor cutting and keeping the place neat.
A religious cemetery had an ongoing problem with heavy equipment damaging stones and plaques and didn’t seem to care?
On the other hand, they had a stock of new stones and ready to engrave plaques and literally replaced both during a visit? (Occupy The Cemetery?)