You’d think the government would leave you alone after you’re dead, but in Alabama, an elderly man is resisting busybody bureaucrats because they won’t let his deceased wife rest in peace.
The reason?
James Davis promised his wife he would bury her in the front yard. And when she died of old age 4 years ago, that’s just what he did. He installed a vault, the funeral home put his wife in the coffin, and on a Saturday morning, Mrs. Davis was laid to rest before a gathering of family members. It was a lovely ceremony, the plot is maintained with colorful decorations and flowers, and the neighbors have no complaints, saying, quote, “it’s his right.” But the bureaucrats at city hall can’t leave well enough alone.
They want to dig up his wife and move her to a, quote, “properly licensed and approved cemetery.” Less than a month after buying his wife, city hall bureaucrats sent James a letter informing him that he was being sued by the government. Now, years later, the grieving widower has spent thousands of dollars protecting his wife’s burial plot. He lost in Circuit Court, then again this past weekend in the State Supreme Court. Defeated, he warned the bureaucrats that if a government agent so much as set foot on his property with the intention of disturbing the gravesite, quote, “there will be an incident.”
So instead of allowing the government to take his wife’s body out of the ground, James offered a compromise: allow him to cremate her body and bury the urn. The bureaucrats agreed. So now if Mr. Davis fully complies with the government’s order, the yard will end up looking exactly as it does now, only with an urn rather than a coffin underneath, leading reasonable people to ask, “What’s the point?” Tell us your thoughts on the Peace News Now Facebook Page.
h/t http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/us/a-front-yard-burial-in-alabama-no-matter-what.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&ref=todayspaper&