CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — Mt. Calvary Cemetery removed hundreds of "unused" flower urns from its properties. The cemetery showed 7 News they are safe but asks families to reach out to them if they want to claim theirs.
Where concrete flower urns once stood, now sit empty dirt patches across the Mount Calvary, Pine Lawn, Ridge Lawn, Buffalo, and United German and French Cemeteries.
For Michael Schalk, the graves of his grandparents and great-grandparents have been missing the spot where he plants flowers every year.
“I needed a few days to get some more plants, and when I came back… the urn was nowhere to be seen,” Schalk said. “I immediately panicked, because we’ve had that same urn for 78 years in the same spot.”
Michael searched all around the site, and couldn’t find it, nor many of the neighboring urns.
Eventually, he saw this, piles of them outside the maintenance shed, worrying not just himself, but other regular visitors like Gail Weatherford.
“These urns and planters, people paid for [them],” Weatherford said. “We expect them to remain there, not be removed.”
What happened to all the flower urns?
“A week ago, Monday, we started the task of removing urns that were unused on our grounds,” Director of Operations, Mount Calvary Cemetery Group Frank Enders said.
Enders pointed out that across the cemeteries, there are several different signs saying, “Urns not filled by June 15th will be removed without notice.”
After they’re removed, Enders showed that the urns are in good hands. Hundreds of them sit in a warehouse organized by last name A to Z, including piles just for initials, and a pile of the dozens unmarked.
This is the first time they’ve done it in a few years, but those piles Michael and Gail saw were just the first step of a long process.
“I apologize if it caused anybody any unrest. But it’s important because…we need to maintain the grounds with line trimming, with mowing,” Enders said. “If [the urn is] not being used, the idea then is to remove it out of your way to make that line trimming and everything else easier.”
What is going to happen to all those urns in the future?
“The next step is to get them back to the families and ask them to please abide by our regulations,” Enders said.
Any families wishing to claim their urns and return them to the grave sites can call the cemetery group at (716) 892-6600.
Any gone unclaimed will be stored or repurposed around the cemetery.
As for the missing urn that started all the questions, Micheal was returned the very urn he’d been looking for Wednesday afternoon.
