To the Editor:

In my six year tenure here as pastor of St. Patrick’s Church and director of St. Patrick’s Cemetery, I have received a half dozen requests from local funeral directors to donate a gravesite for the victims of tragic deaths, like that of Dwayne Borges, who was murdered in October 2014.

The funeral director has explained that the family of the deceased is unable to pay neither the $600 cost of a gravesite nor the $660 expense of opening the gravesite to prepare for the burial.

As an act of mercy in all these cases, the cemetery has donated both a gravesite and its services to the family. As has been cemetery policy for many years, the donation is made with the stipulation that no permanent grave marker can be erected on the grave unless the family pays for the gravesite.

Our rationale is that if the family can afford to buy a grave marker, they should first pay the cemetery for the grave. This will help to ensure the cemetery has the inclination to offer its service to bereaved families in similar circumstances in the future. St. Patrick’s Cemetery does not ask the family of the deceased to repay the $660 expense for the opening of the grave, but asks for $600 for the gravesite in order to erect a grave marker.

I hope this clarifies the circumstances regarding cemetery policy on the placement of a marker on the grave of Dwayne Borges in St. Patrick’s Cemetery.

Sincerely yours,

(Rev.) John M. Sullivan

Director, St. Patrick’s Cemetery