ROMULUS, Mich. (WXMI) — Frustrated residents of Romulus and the surrounding area say they were given no notice to clean up wreaths and grave blankets before they were tossed away at Romulus Memorial Cemetery.
The regularly scheduled date to toss those items is March 15. They were tossed out last week.
Romulus native Shannon Coaltrain says if there was a notice to pick up the memorial items, she would've done so.
"It's heartbreaking. It really is because I'm still grieving losing my brother. I lost him very unexpectedly and those things were put out there specifically for him," Coaltrain said.
Shannon lost her brother, Billy Coaltrain, last November. She's laid out a memorial for him where his ashes now lie next to her grandparent’s headstone at Romulus Memorial Cemetery.
On Wednesday, she noticed her wreath was gone and tossed to the side of the cemetery.
“To see these things just tossed aside, it makes me feel like they don’t matter. But they do. They matter to me," Shannon Coaltrain said.
Frank Nehila was at the cemetery Wednesday to visit his late wife on Valentine's Day. He comes every day. Last week, he noticed his wife's grave blanket was also gone. He found it tossed alongside others.
“Maybe my daughter and I could rework it down the road," he said. "Artsy crafts things we could do together and place it back on there in the wintertime."
However, Shannon Coaltrain can't do the same.
"I looked around — I couldn’t find it. It’s just heartbreaking for me," she said.
7 Action News reached out Romulus City Clerk Ellen Craig-Bragg, who is in charge of the cemetery. She says tossing the items out was one big mistake.
The Cemetery Board of Trustees, which is made up of less than a dozen elderly volunteers, wanted to take advantage of the nice weather last week. They used the warmer weather to clean out all the wreaths and grave blankets.
Craig-Bragg says while their intentions may have been good, they did not know the deadline for people to pick up their things before getting tossed out was March 15. Without notice, they tossed everything out a month ahead of schedule.
“The volunteers, I’m happy that they volunteer and that’s great for them but you know, there’s rules," Shannon Coaltrain said. “I just don’t think they had the right to do that. They overstepped their rights and it’s hurtful.”
Craig-Bragg adds the city feels horrible about the mistake and never authorized the cleanup for the board. She says she has spoken with the board and guarantees this will never happen again.
