Is this practice widespread and is it irreverent?

[e.crespo]

I have just seen this article on the Mail web site: http://www.dailymail....ornaments-graves.html

I am slightly shocked, but should I be?
jj

[murraymints]

It DOES look more like teddy bear's picnic !!

[sandyRoe]

People should allowed to mark the passing of a loved one in whatever way they want. It wouldn't be to everyones taste.

[jackthehat]

I can understand how devastated the families of (especially) children must be, but this particular family have gone too far in their decoration and quite possibly everyone else will have to remove far more simple but no less meaningful nor profound tributes to their loved ones.

[sara3]

my big fat gypsy funeral?

[mollykins]

'Grave owners have been told they can no longer hang decorations from trees and anything not taken down will be removed by council workers.' How can the owners of the grave do anything???!!??

[sandyRoe]

Molly, the fact that you own a grave doesn't necessarily mean that you occupy it

[jackthehat]

Sara !! rofl................Bad Sara !! Bad bad Sara..............LOL........

[woofgang]

I think thats a bit excessive....but maybe there needs to be choice and maybe there need to be cemeteries where that sort of thing is embraced. After all who can say what is right or wrong when you are grieving, especially for a child.
When I was a teen my mother and I used to visit my Nan's grave and nearby there was a child's grave, a victorian one IIRC. The grave space had been designed like a miniature garden with little stone animals and I loved it. there had been dwarf plants as well but only the hebe and the stonecrop were left. I wonder if that caused shock and horror when the parents did it?

[Dris]

Daresay in their recent grief they werent aware that they had infringed slightly but to patronise anyone by purposely likening it to a Poundland grave is far worse.
Far worse are the untended graves or the ones with a bunch of dead flowers from a guilt trip anniversary visit.

[woofgang]

yes Dris I agree.

[murraymints]

Dris.... slightly ?????? makes delboy look an arts adviser to the Royals !!

[jno]

remind me not to be buried in Essex. It's one thing to put what you like on a grave you tend; to decorate all the trees and lawn around it is just stealing common land which ought to be for all mourners.

[Dris]

That right murraymints? Sorry just considering the fact the child had just died 6mths previously -glad ive not been in that situation....

[LoftyLottie]

Agree in jno. What you decorate a grave with should remain within the limits on that grave and not anywhere else. You do have to respect that other people may not like your choice. Personally, I don't want to be buried and don't want any tributes left anywhere!

[LoftyLottie]

agree with jno!

[sara3]

I would just hate to visit a grave, and see all that... stuff nearby.

I know it's their expression of grief, etc.. but it's an eyesore, in my opinion.

[woofgang]

I want a viking funeral....blazing boat and loads of beer

[hc4361]

If people want to do that, they should have the ashes buried in their gardens. Or put in a shrine inside their own house.
Lets keep graveyards dignified and respectful for all.