Winnipeg man shocked after mother’s grave driven on by grounds crew

A Winnipeg man is shocked after his mother’s grave was driven on over the winter and left resembling a small roadway.

Kap Palmer went to visit his mother on Mother’s Day at the Green Acres Cemetery on Fermor Avenue when he noticed what appeared to be tracks on his mother’s grave.

“You should never drive over someone’s gravesite and I’m not the only one…. one, two, three there at least three,” Palmer said pointing at the brown grass. “They know there’s people here and there’s no one on that side of the trees.”

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Michael Gibbens, general manager, of Green Acres Funeral Home and Cemetery said in the winter they had to dig another grave in the back of the cemetary.  Driving over some graves was the only way for their snow clearing equipment and backhoes to access the gravesite, he said.

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“In order to bury someone we have to go across graves,” Gibbens said. “I appreciate his concerns and our maintenance staff is doing what they can to refresh it.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "In order to bury someone we have to go across graves," Gibbens said. "I appreciate his concerns and our maintenance staff is doing what they can to refresh it."

Gibbens said it was an unusual winter as there was intense thawing then freezing, causing the grass to die underneath where the equipment drove. He said this path wasn’t used frequently, only to access the one grave.

However, Palmer said there are no gravesites on the other side of the tree line and wondered why they didn’t drive in the undeveloped area where they knew there were no graves.

Gibbens said their equipment couldn’t get in between the trees.

“The snow banks in the back were like cement, our snow blowing equipment could not get in any other way including the undeveloped section,” he said.

Palmer said he only hoped for an apology and assurance that grounds crews would do everything it can to avoid leaving this kind of damage on his mother’s final resting place.