Three feet wide, eight feet long and six feet deep -- that's how big the hole is that gravedigger Alfred Brown of Tampa is making for a Saturday funeral at Rest Haven Memorial Park. After four hours of digging, the pile of roots removed grows larger behind him, as does the mound of dirt shoveled out of the ground next to him. "Sometimes we use a backhoe," said Brown. "But sometimes, the ground is too soft, the graves are too close together, and there's no way to get a big machine over here. This is the second hand-dug one today. And I'll sleep well tonight." Rest Haven owner Jim McKeehan said that the 30-acre cemetery is third-generation family-owned and operated and has changed names over the years, but has been in existence since 1927. It is the final resting place of educator's showmen, doctors and lawyers, including some of Tampa's more prominent citizens like A. Leon Lowry and Leon Claxton, he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment