Few arrangements are more sensitive and laden with emotions as those that follow an individual’s death.
Families often plan decades in advance in efforts to assure that loved ones will be laid to rest together, often on the same plot.
Those plans, and others, have been shattered for many who believed they would get what they paid for from the Greenwood Memorial Park, an embattled cemetery that had its license suspended by the state in May.
The order from the Washington State Funeral and Cemetery Board barred caretaker Jennifer Duncan from operating the north Centralia cemetery. The memorial park had formerly been in the care of John Baker, a notorious Centralia resident known for eccentric behavior and repeated clashes with law enforcement.
The cemetery has fallen into a tragic state of disrepair. Litter is prevalent, some tombstones are overturned and the grounds are essentially abandoned, if not for the coming and going of family members and friends of those buried there.
With the absence of leadership, those who have already paid for interments and burial arrangements have little recourse outside the justice system.
According to a recent story in The Chronicle, Lewis County resident Elaine Clark and her son, Ernie Clark, are claiming breach of contract and asking Duncan to pay to disinter the remains of Elaine Clark’s husband, Robert Clark, reinter them at another cemetery, and also to cover the costs of getting a gravesite at another cemetery.
The Clarks claim Duncan took possession of markers identifying Ernie Clark’s grave and asked for payment, even though they had paid Baker for the plot and plaque in the early 1990s.
Duncan has since been found in contempt by a Lewis County Superior Court judge for her failure to act on court orders.
It would be bad enough if the Clarks were the only family held in limbo, but unfortunately, there are many others who are facing uncertainty when it comes to end-of-life planning.
Spouses nearing death won’t be buried next to their loved ones who have already died, despite meticulous and costly planning. Those who wish to have remains removed from the struggling cemetery have no way of doing so.
Currently, there is no plan to rectify the situation outside the ongoing court case. No one is overseeing the operations, and no one has voiced intent to do so in the near future.
“It would be good if the Washington State Cemetery Board would step up and take a more active role in this situation,” attorney Matthew Edwards said. “It’s going to be a thorny issue.”
We agree with Edwards.
The cemetery board should, at the very least, provide guidance to local authorities and those who have invested emotionally and financially in plots at the Greenwood Memorial Park.
While action might not be a requirement for the cemetery board, the state should lead the way in preventing more pain, suffering and uncertainty for those who have already experienced enough of all three.
