I am absolutely disgusted by the management company of the cemetery my daughter is buried in. I discovered that they are not only ok with people coming in to play Pokemon Go, but they are actually posting signs, welcoming players, telling them to have fun, and offering a free gift.
Now, I don't give a shit what kind of game you play. I may personally think it is dumb, but if that is what you want to spend time doing, then by all means, have at it. I wouldn't even care if it was just a couple people visiting the cemetery. If you're not hurting anything, then cool. I personally think it's disrespectful to play a game in a cemetery, but a few people is not a big deal.
But thanks to this sign, word of mouth, and an article in the local newspaper, people have been flocking to the cemetery by the dozens to search for Pokemon. Are people being disrespectful or vandalizing graves? Hopefully not, but inviting a bunch of people, most of whom are teenagers who tend to not respect things that are sacred, is just asking for vandalism. It's putting a big neon sign, inviting people in here to "play and have fun" thus the cemetery owners themselves are devaluing the importance of treating it as sacred land, so how does anyone expect these people to have respect?
But more importantly than anything, it has turned the cemetery into a circus. I went yesterday evening to see for myself. Emily and I visited Kayla's grave for at least 15 minutes, and in that time I counted around 50 cars, possibly more, coming and going. At times there were as many as 6 cars driving past us all in a line. As we were driving into the cemetery, it took forever because the lead car kept stopping, no doubt staring at his phone. As we were leaving, it also took a long time because there were a group of kids just standing in the middle of the road, and everyone had to try to get around them on the already narrow streets.
In addition to all of the cars, there were several groups of people on bikes and on foot, walking around, standing by different graves....I am not sure why, I don't now the logistics of the game. But I do know the different poke things show up in spots, so I can only assume when people are standing in one spot, they are trying to catch the thing that they found. Each and every person and car that went by stared at us like we were a road side show, as if we were the weird ones, being at a cemetery to visit a grave.
I was so pissed by the time I left, I was almost in tears. There are some days I go to the cemetery because I am having a hard day, and I just want to sit in peace and quiet, in the only tangible place I can go to feel close to my daughter and cry. How the fuck are you supposed to do that when the traffic going in and out is comparable to a regular city street? A cemetery is not a park, it is not a hang out space. It's not a place to be driving through, or walking through with your friends, talking and laughing. It's feasible that an actual funeral service could be going on, while these idiots are all hanging around. I cannot even imagine being there for her funeral and seeing this going on, or going to her grave in the days and weeks since we lost her, when the pain was the most raw, and being stared at but all these gawkers.
If anyone on this earth should know the importance of a cemetery being respected and honored, it should be people who run a cemetery. Those who are in charge of being there for people in the darkest time, who take on the delicate task of laying your loved one to rest and looking after their final resting place. What is in it for them? What possible reason could they have had to invite all these strangers in to play a damn game? What, getting their name in the paper? Do they think these people are going to come through and think wow, this is a nice cemetery, I think I'll go home and write my will (when I am done playing Pokemon) to declare that this is where I want to be buried.
So clearly they don't give a rats ass about the people who have entrusted them with their loves ones place of rest, they are only using this as an incredibly disrespectful way to drum up more business. I was so pissed, I called them right then and left a voicemail because it was after hours. I was so mad, I might have included a few expletives, but I couldn't help it, I am so upset about this. I posted a link to the news article on my facebook, and several friends and family members commented about how disgusting it was, and also shared it. My MIL called them today, my friend's mom called, my BIL wrote an email, my SIL also wrote to them, and several people left shitty reviews, including myself, on their facebook page and I know several of them called today or went to the office.
I hope they spend this entire week answering calls and dealing with people walking in to yell at them for this. They are already a pretty shitty cemetery, the ONLY reason we chose it is because of how close it is to our house. I hope they spend weeks dealing with the backlash of this wonderful marketing decision. The funeral home warned us that they are shitty to deal with. I can't say I should have listened because I really don't think I could have handled Kayla being buried so far away at the other cemetery, but it just goes to show that they were right. I hope they lose a lot of business over this.
No comments:
Post a Comment