Grove Cemetery needs some help

Re: Cemetery not being properly cared for, letter by Noel C. Reschke, Aug. 17.

I agree, but I can also understand how maintenance crews fell behind their grass cutting schedule due to the very wet spring, as Lynne Prsa of Windsor Grove Cemetery noted in her response.

This is a non-denominational and non-profit cemetery established in 1866. It is the resting place of Samuel Smith MacDonell, Windsor’s first mayor in 1858, Gordon McGregor, who helped establish Ford of Canada in Windsor, and 47 graves of soldiers who fought in the First and Second World Wars — including a monument memorializing them. Chinese Canadian grave sites worn by the elements are being repaired by the Chinese Benevolent Fund. There are well over 700 people of numerous ethnic backgrounds interred in the old graveyard. My mother Florence, who passed in 1952, is buried in a grave that was purchased for only $30.

There are many trees that require trimming, many forgotten graves, tombstones that have tipped, sunken or been vandalized, a winding road in need of repair, and a stone entrance arch that needs tender loving care. The Windsor Grove Cemetery is a place of interest to many and the resting place of many souls, who need Windsor’s financial help to repair their eternal resting place. Windsor has a Community Heritage Fund. If Windsor Grove could be designated a heritage site, financial assistance might be possible. If not, may I suggest the mayor and council members designate funds after they tour the cemetery to see the many repairs that are needed.

This support will show that Windsor cares, not only for the living, but also the dignity of those who have passed before them.

Peter J. Middlemore Sr., Windsor