I just have to take the time to comment on the uproar about grave decorations. I work at a city “memorial garden” which usually means a cemetery with plaques in the ground instead of headstones. It is consists of 50 acres, so the lawn maintenance is ongoing. I live in a rural area north of the city where my family has lived for 150 years. Here the cemeteries are very small and have elaborate headstones and people feel free to decorate the graves with wild abandonment. Many of the graves have benches, arbors, toys, pinwheels, shrubs, and statues and it is enjoyable to visit the cemetery to go and see how people honor their loved ones. However, the caretakers there are mostly retired men who have nothing else to do than trim around all the paraphnalia in the 2 acre cemetery. It would be impossible in a 50 acre cemetery such as ours. In recent years we have begun offering stone benches instead of plaques, and families can place decorations upon the benches if they wish.
