This story has been updated to include comments from Forest Home Cemetery.
After buying a crypt for her husband in May, a local woman was visiting Forest Home Cemetery in August with her 11-year-old daughter when, around 3:50 p.m., a staff member came by to say the cemetery gates would be closing soon.
“I was completely shocked and confused because I had never been notified that visitation hours had changed,” the woman told the Review in an email, requesting anonymity for her privacy. When the woman bought her husband’s plot, she was told she could visit the cemetery from dawn to dusk — which can be as late as 8 p.m. in August.
“As we gathered our belongings and walked back to our car, I remember feeling devastated that our grief suddenly seemed to have limitations and a schedule,” she said. “It was difficult to understand how families could be expected to fit mourning and remembrance into what felt like office hours.”
The woman started a petition on Aug. 20 against the 4 p.m. closure of Forest Home Cemetery. As of Sept. 4, the petition has over 630 signatures.
Forest Home Cemetery implemented its new 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. visitation hours following multiple incidents of theft and vandalism, according to Dan Fitts, the cemetery’s executive director.
There have been a recent string of thefts from cemeteries, and last month, two people were arrested for stealing brass doors from cemeteries in Forest Park and surrounding municipalities.
The woman’s petition asks Forest Home Cemetery to consider the access of grieving loved ones in their security measures, suggesting that visiting hours are extended to at least 7 p.m., or the cemetery implements controlled access for plot owners.
But Fitts said such individual access “is not operationally feasible. We recognize the importance of families being able to visit loved ones entrusted to our care and continue to provide access seven days per week.”
The woman said, “Our goal is not confrontation but collaboration. We hope to work together toward a solution that respects both the operational needs of the cemetery and the needs of families seeking time for remembrance and reflection.” She added, “Access to our loved ones should be balanced with security concerns in a way that recognizes the realities of work, school and family life.”
After Forest Home Cemetery started closing at 4 p.m. last month, “I arranged with my employer to leave work early so I could pick [my daughter] up after her first day of middle school and take her to visit her father,” the woman said in an email. “She wanted to tell him all about her first day. We rushed through traffic only to find the gates already closed at 4 p.m. The heartbreak on her face in that moment is something I will never forget. As a parent, not being able to give my daughter that opportunity to feel connected to her father on such an important day was devastating.”