Letters: Courts should intervene in Mount Moriah case
Regarding the recent, unexpected closing of Mount Moriah Cemetery, my mother's predicament is typical. Her grandparents purchased a plot of 12 graves sometime in the 1870s. My father, years before Mount Moriah fell victim to vandals and neglect, bought a four-grave plot for our family. He is buried there, amid weeds two feet high. My mother, now a fragile 91, cries because the cemetery is closed to burials.
Regarding the recent, unexpected closing of Mount Moriah Cemetery, my mother's predicament is typical. Her grandparents purchased a plot of 12 graves sometime in the 1870s. My father, years before Mount Moriah fell victim to vandals and neglect, bought a four-grave plot for our family. He is buried there, amid weeds two feet high. My mother, now a fragile 91, cries because the cemetery is closed to burials.
Why aren't the contractual obligations of the delinquent owners being assumed by the commonwealth, including the appointment of an interim custodian? The prospect of the elderly and infirm having to repurchase burial plots elsewhere is agonizing, and the separation in death from departed family members through the unlawful denial of a burial plot that has been paid for is unconscionable. The city and the commonwealth are expected to protect basic human dignity, and to right wrongs - in this case, the wrongs began long before unfit owners fled and the cemetery closed. This isn't a complaint about the closing of a playground or vacation resort. This is the loss of essential human services, and it demands a court order now.
Carol K. Frank
Philadelphia