Cemetery hours hinder holiday visits

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This article was published 17/12/2018 (2628 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The cemetery may not be a place you associate with Christmas but, to some, it’s a place to feel close to a loved one at a time when their absence hits hardest.

It was Margaret Harding’s favourite time of year. Her 2007 obituary notice said the mother of 10 looked forward to spending Christmas Eve with her family.

Now, Harding’s family visits their mom’s grave at Brookside Cemetery every Christmas Eve.

“Every year, we try to keep the tradition going, but the city is making it harder and harder,” daughter Debbie Hogue said.

Starting Nov. 1, the city-run cemetery reduced its hours, closing at 4:30 p.m. throughout the winter.

“A lot of people work till four and some people can’t get there,” Hogue said. Her family is not alone, she said. She’s gotten to know others who spend time at the final resting place of their loved ones at Brookside.

“We’re a community,” said Kathleen Marshall, a social work student who regularly visits the grave of her son Daylan Damianakos-Marshall, who died of cancer in 2013 at age 22. “A lot of people go,” said Marshall, who met Hogue while visiting the cemetery.

“I see people on special occasions and the regulars — the families who take care of their loved ones — and there’s always new people,” said Marshall. She often goes to Daylan’s grave with a fresh candle to light.

“We go on Christmas Eve as a family,” said Marshall, a single parent with two sons. “We decorate, bring gifts and some food and say a prayer,” she said. “We have our time with my son.”

That was when the cemetery was open until at least 6 p.m., she said. This year, with the cemetery closing earlier, things will be different.

“With the new hours, I’m not able to (go),” said Marshall. “Most people work on Christmas Eve,” she said. She said she called the city to ask that the hours be extended and was told “that’s the way it is.”

Hogue and Marshall both said complaints to the city about the shortened winter hours have been dismissed. Marshall said she was told the closure after dark was to prevent vandalism. She said people visiting the cemetery are the best deterrent to vandals, who in the past have toppled headstones and caused damage. And the bereaved look out for one another and the sanctity of the place, she said. “I help take care of their resting places for their loved ones,” Marshall said. “I clean up garbage and in the summer, I’ll water their flowers.”

‘Christmas was her season. When my mom was alive, we spent Christmas Eve with her every year. Every year we try to keep the tradition going but the city is making it harder and harder’– Debbie Hogue, whose mother, Margaret Harding, is buried at Brookside Cemetery

A spokesman for the city said hours of public access at Winnipeg-operated cemeteries are reduced during the fall and winter “to improve security of the cemetery grounds and to assist visitors in remaining safe, by limiting the amount of time the grounds are accessible after dark.” He said the reduced hours are in effect from Nov. 1 to Feb. 28 and are implemented annually.

He did not respond to a question about whether the city would consider extending the hours during the Christmas holidays.

Marshall said it would help if they could keep the gates open until 6 p.m.: “I don’t think it’s asking a lot,” she said.

“Till 6 p.m. every day would be great,” Hogue said. If not for every day in the winter, then at least for the holidays. “On Christmas Eve would be great. Lots of people want to light a candle.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca