GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Marcy Price contacted the 13 Help Team in August and said she was concerned that her late mother was in an unmarked grave at Blythefield Memory Gardens. She had been trying to get a nameplate for the headstone for a year and a half.
"They keep telling me they had to get a new template made for the nameplate because it was an old style nameplate," said Price. "But, I mean, a year and a half later, how long does it take to make a template? You know, the headstones there, just the nameplates."
After her story aired, Tara Bowerman and Susie Austin saw her story and contacted us with similar complaints.
"We paid for everything," said Bowerman. "We buried him. She told us then that she would get us a little grave marker for him. It'll be a couple weeks, it'll come in, and then during the winter, his headstone would come in, early spring they would place his headstone, and his headstone was never placed."
Bowerman's father-in-law, David Jewell, has been buried at the privately owned Belmont Cemetery for a year now. However, the only thing marking his grave is a temporary plastic marker.
Receipts show that the Bowerman's paid for the $4,000 plot in full after David Jewell's death.
"He's got a story, and his story deserves to be at peace with him," said Bowerman. "He deserves to have his headstone."
Austin said she has been waiting for the date of death for her mother to be engraved on the stone that carries her mother's ashes. Some friends visiting the family plot recently, Austin said, didn't know her mother died.
"They visit my dad, and then they see that there's no date of death for my mom, so they think she's still alive," said Austin. "So they asked me, How's your mom doing? And I said, Well, she passed three years ago, and they went shocked."
In response, Alexis Clemens, family services manager for the cemetery, said she's still working to get David Jewell's gravestone in place after it was damaged during shipping.
"We disassembled all of them, and had to send the plaques back to be refinished and they are being resent out, and I did also when I spoke to the rep this morning, we do have confirmation that is in the works to get out to us in the next week, and they are putting a five day rush on all of those orders that were delayed on that," said Clemens.
For Garnet Blue's death date, Clemens said they received the wrong style from the manufacturer, but added, she should be receiving the correct one soon.
"I resubmitted that to them to and we have the proper notations now that I verified with the manufacturer, and that will be taken care by the end of this month," said Clemens.
Clemens added that she apologizes to those who have had longer than normal waiting times.
"We'll just do our best to make it, make it right, and try to make it better," said Clemens. "We really put our own heart and soul into everything that we do out here. It's our family history. It's our family legacy. My grandparents are out here. So everything we do is out here. It's very personal."