Council blunder sees dead mum’s plot inundated, according this morning's South Coast Register 

THE last time Catherine Felder saw her mother she was at peace in an open casket. Sadly, that won’t be her enduring memory.

Helen Felder from Woollamia was buried at Shoalhaven Memorial Gardens and Lawn Cemetery at Worrigee on Thursday.

After the ceremony Mrs Felder went back to talk to the workers about filling in the hole.

“They only put about a foot of sand over the coffin and then a plastic cover over the hole,” she said.

“I went back there again on Sunday and the plastic was still there but the hole hadn’t been filled and had over a metre of water in it.

On Monday morning her daughter returned to the grave to find it still open and partly filled with water from the recent rain.

 

A council spokesman said an error of judgment had been made on the part of a staff member.

“Shoalhaven City Council unreservedly apologises for any further grief this may have caused the deceased’s family.

“Council has been in communication with the deceased person’s family and has put measures in place to ensure a similar incident cannot take place again.

“Due to the extremely poor weather conditions experienced throughout the area Shoalhaven Bereavement Services were forced to defer burials at the Sandridge Cemetery at Mollymook late last week.

“A decision was made to continue burials at the Shoalhaven Memorial Gardens and Lawn Cemetery, despite the ongoing rain, in a bid to ease the suffering of families and friends of the deceased that would be caused by delaying the funerals,” he said

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