A GRIEVING mum who had found peace in adorning her stillborn baby’s grave with heartfelt gifts told today of her shock after council bosses stripped the tributes away.

Lisa McFarlane choked back tears as she declared that the array of colourful items she had gathered around daughter Lisa-Mya were removed ‘without warning’ by local authority workers.

She has branded the council officials who made the decision ‘heartless’.

Lisa, 34, told the Telegraph: “I went up to the grave, as I frequently do, to be close to my wee girl and I discovered that pretty much everything had gone. I am in complete shock.

“They just came in and took all of the things that I had treasured away — and I knew absolutely nothing about it.

“I think that what they have done — and particularly the way in which they have done it — is just heartless and without any consideration or thought for my feelings.”

Heartbroken Lisa has visited the graveside of little Lisa-Mya at least once a week for the last three years, and she had decorated the lair with ornaments, solar lights and flowers.

She had transformed the plot at Knocknairshill Cemetery on Greenock’s Kilmacolm Road into a shrine in memory of her ‘beautiful girl’ and moved home from Larkfield to Grieve Road to be closer to her daughter.

She said: “I used to go up there every day but people told me that I was maybe visiting the grave too often and not giving myself time to grieve properly.

“But now I just feel completely heartbroken because having the tributes there was the only comfort I had — and it has been taken away from me so abruptly.”

Lisa told how she complied with a letter she received from Inverclyde Council in December requesting that she remove what she termed as ‘some items’ from near the grave.

She said: “Other graves had a lot of stuff as well but I did what the council asked me to do and I thought that what was left there would be fine.

“Obviously it wasn’t fine because they’ve all been taken away and all that is left is some flowers. It’s the fact that I didn’t receive any follow-up letter or even a phone call telling me about what was going to happen.”

Lisa added: “I phoned the council at 3.30pm last Friday afternoon after I’d discovered how bare the grave was but I got no answer — the phone just rang out. I called again at 3.45pm and I got a voicemail telling me that the office was now shut.”

Call centre adviser Lisa, who has eight other children — Brandon, 16, Aaron, 15, Craig, 14, Jai, 11, Karissa, eight, Leon, six, Malissa, three, and Niamha, 17 months — said: “All that I can do now is get the things back from the council and maybe make a shrine to Lisa-Mya in my back garden.”

Inverclyde Council today defended its policy of removing tributes from graves.

A spokesman for the local authority said: “This is clearly a very sensitive issue but it is one that we have to strike the right balance.

“Letters were sent before Christmas explaining that a lair is purchased for the exclusive right of burial and the right to erect a single memorial only.

“There are signs throughout the council’s cemeteries saying that unauthorised memorials will be removed and placed in storage for a month.

“While there is always a degree of flexibility, we will remove unauthorised memorials, particularly when it is encroaching onto other people’s lairs.”

 

Dad distraught as son’s grave cleared

By Rosemary Lowne

A GRIEVING Greenock dad says he’s distraught after touching tributes at his son’s graveside were ‘senselessly’ cleared away.

James Watson has been struggling to come to terms with the loss of his beloved eight-year-old son Cody Thomas Watson McFarlane, who tragically died just over two years ago.

He says that tending to little Cody’s grave three to four times a day has been a great source of comfort to him through the dark times.

But Inverclyde Council took away 11 small lights which he’d placed next to Cody’s gravestone in Knocknairshill Cemetery in Greenock last week.

The 51-year-old told the Tele: “We initially got a letter from the council a few days before Cody’s second anniversary last year asking us to move some of Cody’s artefacts.

“It was really upsetting at the time but we agreed to have a meeting with a guy from the council at the cemetery in October.

“When we met him he made some sort of apology but asked us if we could move everything nearer to Cody’s grave so they could re-turf the grass before Christmas.

“We complied with what they wanted and moved everything back, leaving a few wee lights round his stone.

“But when I went up last week the lights were gone.

“Me and Cody’s mum Joanne are totally distraught, especially as we had done as they requested.

“It’s sickening the way they treat people.”

Little Cody, who suffered from a series of disabilities, passed away just over two years ago after being stricken with severe breathing difficulties.

He was rushed to Inverclyde Royal and then Yorkhill Children’s Hospital in Glasgow but his organs started to fail.

Today James of Glenbrae Road is demanding a full apology from the local authority over the graveside clearance.

He added: “Cody’s grave is tidy and tasteful as I look after the place and cut the grass for four plots.

“Families have got enough to think about without having to go through this hassle — it’s senseless.

“It’s hard to explain what it’s like to lose a family member let alone losing a child.

“I want the council to apologise to us and do a u-turn on this.

“Families should be allowed to grieve without getting pestered by these petty things.

“They should instead concentrate on fixing the path in front of Cody’s grave, as that has been left a complete mess.”

Another bereaved parent who contacted the Tele about the situation was Charlene Elliott.

She said she was ‘heartbroken’ after touching memorials she had placed on her son’s grave were removed.

Her baby boy Daniel Frank Smith was only 19 days old when he tragically died of suspected cot death in his home in August last year.

Charlene said: “I had taken away all the tributes on Daniel’s grave so that the grass could get done, so I’d done what they asked.

“After the work was carried out I put all his tributes back on his graveside, but they have taken them away for no reason.

“I’m going to speak to the council about it as I’m so angry.”