GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A couple wandering through the woods on Grand Rapids' West Side were unsettled and concerned when they stumbled across piles of old gravestones.
How cemeteries dispose of unwanted headstones is a problem most people never think about. Grand Rapids couple Tasha and Edward Vesota literally stumbled upon the subject.
The Vesotas like to hike through the woods that run through northwest Grand Rapids toward Walker.
"We was down at Richmond Park and we came up Indian Mill Creek and we walked up the trail that way," Edward Vesota said.
Behind West Catholic High School on property owned by Holy Cross Cemetery, they found piles of discarded headstones. The stones dated back decades and in some cases were nearly a century old. The cemetery dates back more than 100 years.
This photo courtesy the Vesotas shows a pile of discarded gravestones behind Holy Cross Cemetery on Grand Rapids' West Side.There were markers for people including married couples, infants, mothers. Many are for World War I veterans.
"I was heartbroken, heartbroken," Tasha Vesota said.
"It's somebody's family, it's somebody's baby, it's somebody's mom, dad, uncle, whoever. I mean, for their headstone to end up in the woods is just ridiculous," she continued. "Dispose of it properly. That is not properly."
The headstones are scattered through a large section of these woods, some plowed under by heavy equipment. The earth shifts as you walk, indicating that the disposal runs deep underground.
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