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hattie
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# Posted: 15 Oct 2015 01:18am - Edited by: hattie
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So my husband Bob and I look after our local cemetery. We've been doing it for years and years. We spend our winters looking for death notices and trying to match names to our cemetery and in the spring, summer and fall I clean headstones and Bob weed whacks all the weeds and grass. Bob also takes out dead trees, etc. The place looks pretty good and we've mapped it out as best we can.
We were up there working today and while I was busy cleaning a headstone I heard Bob calling for me in a very panicked voice. I turned around and saw him (but didn't look very carefully) and took my time going to his aid. Wasn't I surprised (but not as surprised as he was) to see him sunken past his knees in a grave.  I guess the grave collapsed while he was standing on it and down he went. I managed to pull him out but it was pretty gross. The entire grave is going down so we did our best to try to stabilize it. Next spring we'll properly fix it.
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Don_P
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# Posted: 15 Oct 2015 06:06am - Edited by: Don_P
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I hope he's ok. A fried of ours blew her knee out similarly, not something you ordinarily think about.
More cemetery related stuff, I worked on restoring an older log home, well over a decade ago now. At the time they had some folks from the university out to use ground penetrating radar to try to locate the old graves and map the extents of the family cemetery. The groundhogs had made a mess of things and a very old casket handle had shown up on the surface. The site had not been used since around the turn of the century. (His sword had turned up inside a chink joint in the cabin). Unfortunately with the tunneling the radar was inconclusive. Last week my wife bumped into the owner of the cabin (6th generation). In reading histories and her mother's research she has just about mapped it out.
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turkeyhunter
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# Posted: 15 Oct 2015 08:34am
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wow---Glad Bob is ok...I guess he had 2 feet in the grave ....seriously glad he is ok
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 15 Oct 2015 08:59am
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Scary, but just in time for Halloween. All you needed was a few badly decomposed hands coming out of the ground grabbing at him.
Wow, strange, maybe a wooden casket that rotted? That would be gross.
T/H, that is funny. 
Yes, glad Bob is OK. 
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hattie
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# Posted: 15 Oct 2015 12:01pm
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Quoting: toyota_mdt_tech Wow, strange, maybe a wooden casket that rotted?
That's exactly what it was. We get lots of collapsed graves at the cemetery but this was the first time one collapsed under one of us. I'm always crawling around on top of the graves to clean the headstones. I think I'll be more careful from now on.
Last weekend (Thanksgiving for us here in Canada) there were lots of tourists at the cemetery - many go at night. Can you imagine if one of them fell into it? I'm sure they never would have gone back again. *LOL*
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hattie
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# Posted: 15 Oct 2015 12:02pm - Edited by: hattie
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Quoting: turkeyhunter I guess he had 2 feet in the grave
hahaha....Yuppers. I told him it's a good thing his shoes were on tight because if he had lost one in that hole there is no way I'd go reaching around for it. ewwwww.....
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hattie
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# Posted: 15 Oct 2015 12:12pm
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Don_P - That is really neat about the sword!!!
Old cemeteries fascinate me. A teacher from the University of British Columbia was supposed to come with his class a few years ago to do GPR on the cemetery but the lawyers at the university said no. It was very disappointing. The original records were lost decades ago so we have had a hard time trying to piece it all together. Every time I think I have found everyone interred there, another name shows up in an old obituary. We've been volunteering at the cemetery for so long now I feel like I know the people there.
For anyone interested in cemeteries, if you take photos of the headstones you can send them in to a website called Find A Grave. It is great for genealogists looking for lost family members. I have our cemetery listed there as well as on the Canadian Gravemarker Gallery.
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naturelover66
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# Posted: 15 Oct 2015 03:33pm
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Poor Bob is gonna have nightmares i imagine. How many people can say they fell into a grave?
Glad he got out.. lol
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littlehouseontheprarie
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# Posted: 15 Oct 2015 05:19pm
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I may be a big old guy.But I guarantee I would of screamed like
a little girl if I had done that.
It gives me the creeps just thinking about it
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neb
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# Posted: 15 Oct 2015 09:20pm
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Hattie>>glad Bob didn't get hurt. That is a very kind and thoughtful thing you do at the cemetery what kindness.
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Gary O
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# Posted: 16 Oct 2015 01:01pm
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Quoting: hattie I managed to pull him out
Knew you were a nice lady, but never once considered resurrection as part of your portfolio.
You gonna send him back if he acts up?
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hattie
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# Posted: 16 Oct 2015 10:25pm
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Quoting: Gary O You gonna send him back if he acts up?
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Julie2Oregon
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# Posted: 17 Oct 2015 02:53am
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Oh, wow, that's the stuff of nightmares. Literally! I'm glad he's OK and he he didn't fall the whole way in! Shiver.
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Bevis
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# Posted: 17 Oct 2015 11:12pm
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Quoting: hattie website called Find A Grave
Friday afternoon I was photographing a Headstone for a request on Find A Grave. One of the County cemetery maintenace guys fell into a grave that had settling due to a broken water line. There was no vault and he landed on top of the casket. I think he soiled himself, and was ashen gray in color from being scared.
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hattie
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# Posted: 17 Oct 2015 11:47pm
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Quoting: Bevis There was no vault and he landed on top of the casket
There was no vault on this grave either and Bob definitely fell into the casket (I could see wood in the hole when I pulled him out). It is common that over time caskets will deteriorate and this results in collapsed graves. That is why many times you see sunken holes where the grave is. I have spend a lot of time filling sunken graves at the cemetery we look after. This one will be next on my list in the spring.
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