Family’s heartbreak as crematorium staff remove tributes to tragic teenager
MEMORIAL ITEMS BREAK SITE’S RULES BUT GRIEVING BROTHER SAYS ‘I THINK IT’S DISGUSTING’
A GRIEVING brother says he has been left heartbroken after sentimental items were removed from his teenage brother’s resting place at Manchester Crematorium.
Simon Turner’s family scattered his brother Lee’s ashes at a memorial rose tree on the site, and have placed a collection of items at the base of the tree.
It included flower holders, marble stones, personalised trinkets, solar powered lights, a memorial plaque and a City football scarf.
But when Simon visited on Christmas Day, he was horrified to discover the items he had left in memory of Lee, who tragically drowned aged just 16 in 1989, had all disappeared.
He discovered that his items, and those belonging to other families, had been placed at the back of the crematorium.
The crematorium says it was not its intention to upset anyone by removing the items, but private memorials are against its rules and cannot be added to the trees. It says staff frequently remove items that are not permitted under the terms of the leases for the rose memorials, to preserve the quality of the flowers.
Simon says he believes other families may not yet be aware that their items have been removed.
He says he has since heard from other relatives who are also upset about items being removed from their loved one’s resting places, after he posted about it on social media. Simon, from Fallowfield, said: “When I went on Christmas Day there was nothing there, not a thing.
“I was absolutely heartbroken, I couldn’t believe it. “I said, ‘you can’t do that, it’s my tree’ and they said ‘you’re only leasing it.’ If you have a lease car, they don’t come and take the car. I said it was disgusting, you can’t take my things.
“I had to search around the back of the crematorium to find my things. I’ve had to put it all in a bag, I was gutted.
“They shouldn’t be taking people’s things. I go there to talk to Lee. It’s the closest thing I’ve got to him.
“I think there are other people who don’t even know about this yet. One girl told me they had moved stuff she left for her baby.
“I think it’s disgusting. This is stuff that has been put there by brokenhearted families.”