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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Cemetery restoration appals families

Grave covers, headstones moved

By: Bill Redekop

Posted: 06/15/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Sally Krahn, whose grandfather is buried at the Grunthal Cemetery, looks at a piece of what appears to be a grave marker. She called the upheaval 'sickening.' (RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

GRUNTHAL -- Edgar Allan Poe wouldn't know where to start.

Concrete slabs that served as grave covers at the Grunthal Cemetery are stacked like shelves in a morgue, up to four metres high.

Rows of cavities a foot deep are left where those grave covers used to be, as if the cemetery had been hit by grave robbers. Tracks from heavy equipment are imprinted on the exposed earth over those graves. Displaced headstones litter the grounds.

It's a cemetery restoration, but it has left many people appalled and questioning whether it was necessary.

"I just find it sickening. The first day I saw it, I told them (people working on the site) this is very disturbing," said Sally Krahn, who has several family members buried at the cemetery.

The work started about two weeks ago. Krahn said many people may be in for a shock if they visit the cemetery on Father's Day.

"I couldn't believe it," Karen Martens said of her first reaction. She couldn't find where family members are buried. "I'm not happy, especially since we weren't notified."

That's the other question: Who knew? The decision was made by the cemetery committee. People said even a pastor at one of the two Mennonite churches that own the Grunthal Cemetery has confided he didn't know about the restoration. When queried by the Free Press, Pastor Jarrod Chamberlin of Elim Mennonite Church chose his words carefully.

"There's been miscommunication, and this has been overwhelming for everyone that sees it," Chamberlin said.

A video showing grave covers being torn out of the ground by a front-end loader has been posted on YouTube. On Wednesday, during a Free Press visit, a giant backhoe was picking up the broken concrete covers and depositing them in a dump truck to be taken to a disposal site.

"It's unfortunate (some people) are upset," said Charlie Wiens, a member of the cemetery committee that made the decision. Cutting grass between headstones was adding considerable time and difficulty to maintenance. The restoration work involves uprooting headstones and grave covers and putting down rows of sidewalk-width runways for the headstones to stand on.

"I tend to think by allowing these runways, it will be much easier to maintain," Wiens said. "A lot of beds were sunken in the ground and a lot of them were tilted... To maintain an uneven ground surface is very difficult."

Critics wonder if the cemetery committee is being overly proactive. Krahn didn't think the Grunthal Cemetery was in any worse shape than any of the hundreds of other rural cemeteries across Manitoba. Cemeteries in Europe are even older, with much more uneven ground, she said.

The cost of restoration was pegged at $25,000, based on volunteers working together with paid heavy-equipment operators. But Wiens conceded that estimate is already outdated and the final figure will come in higher.

No headstones have been broken but if any are, they will be replaced, he said. The headstones are expected to be back in their proper places by the end of summer, Wiens said.

Grunthal is about 85 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg, in the RM of Hanover.

"I actually became aware of this on Friday," said Henry Funk, a councillor for Hanover. "It looks bad, but I think that when all is said and done, I think it will be better."

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 15, 2012 A9

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