MELROSE, Mass. — This Memorial Day Weekend, many will be heading to their local military cemeteries for ceremonies honoring U.S. heroes. But Elfriede Doyla, a 92-year-old Melrose woman, said she buried her husband, Anthony, at Wyoming Cemetery in 2023, and she’s disgraced by what she believes is a lack of maintenance there.
“Just look at the grass and the dead spots... it’s sad,” Doyle said.
Doyle said when she was offered to bury her husband at the cemetery after he passed, she felt it was fitting.
“My husband was in the army... he was proud of being a patriot,” Doyle said.
But Doyle didn’t actually see the cemetery until the day of his funeral.
“I said, oh my God, what have a I done?” Doyle said.
Doyle said she was devstated, because she believes it isn’t how a veterans’ cemetery should look.
“The gravestones are not in line like they’re supposed to be... some are in deep, some of them higher, some of them too far apart,” Doyle said. “I’m emotional because all of them deserve much better.”
Doyle said she contacted a number of organizations to help, but her efforts have been unsuccessful.
“I called everywhere I could that was a veteran’s organization, most of them said, ‘oh we might look into it, oh nothing we could do,’” Doyle said.
Wyoming Cemetery is a municipal, community-operated cemetery which is owned and maintained by the city of Melrose. Thomas Dalton, the spokesperson for the city, said the uneven gravestones are caused by stormwater from bordering streets. He said it also leads to frost heaving in the winters and erosion.
“If we just went through and leveled right now, we would probably see similar heaving and erosion happen again in a matter of years,” Dalton said.
Which is why Dalton said the city is working to secure federal funding to fix the streets first, working in partnership with Malden. He added an order is before city council right now to move that project along to the next step.
“It’s the kind of thing where you don’t want to start doing major and expensive work until the root problem has been addressed,” Dalton said.
But every time Doyle goes to visit with her husband, she said she feels nothing but heartbreak.
“With the taxes we pay, there should be some money for the veterans,” Doyle said.
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