Cypress : Demonstrators Protest Forest Lawn Decision

About a dozen people carrying signs such as “Help Save the Wishing Well” picketed Forest Lawn Memorial Park on Sunday, protesting a decision by the cemetery’s management to remove about 20 large grave decorations.

Christine Klima, the cemetery manager, said the protest was over a decision two weeks ago by the park’s board of directors that large, privately placed flower boxes, windmills and tombstones violated park rules and should be removed.

“Forest Lawn would be breaking faith with many thousands of owners if we permit a handful of families to violate cemetery rules by permanently altering the landscape with private, unauthorized embellishments,” Klima said.

“Our rules and regulations and internment property deeds have always spelled out the fact that Forest Lawn has the right--and, indeed, the obligation--to design and control the landscaping and architecture in each of our memorial parks. We intend to honor that obligation on behalf of all of our many property owners,” she said.

In some cases, the cemetery management permitted decorations to stay in place for several years. In a letter to some of the families last week, Klima wrote, “Perhaps it was our fault for letting the situation get out of hand.”

But, she said, the rules had to be applied to stop private decorations from creating a “cluttered appearance.”

Lustrina Carbullido of Stanton, whose son, Johnny, is buried at Forest Lawn, said the demonstrating families also were protesting the way they were told to remove the decorations.

“There was a note--taped with masking tape--to the planter boxes on the grave sites with an ultimatum to remove them by May 5, that only fresh-cut flowers are permitted. No letter, no phone call--just an ultimatum,” she said.

“After Johnny was buried there, we put his picture in a little redwood wishing well. Ours is the most beautiful spot there. We go every day and don’t want Forest Lawn rolling their lawn mowers over our graves,” she said. “We want our grave sites to be beautiful.”

Klima said the problem is essentially limited to the Cypress cemetery, one of five Forest Lawn cemeteries in Southern California, where “a small group of families encourages each other to have larger and larger decorations.” The disputed decorations, most of which are flower boxes, measure about 3 feet by 2 feet, she said.

“At this point, we have scheduled removal for a week after Memorial Day,” Klima said. “The families are protesting, but we’re hoping to work out a compromise to ease their discomfort.”

Carbullido said that after they began protesting, the families were granted an extension until May 30. The management has decided potted plants can stay, she said. “They’re giving in to some, but not others,” she said.

Conceding that the cemetery’s bylaws call for uniformity and fresh-cut flowers, Carbullido said, “in a bereaved state of sadness, no one reads the fine print on contracts.”

“My redwood planter has been there for several years, and this rule (allowing only fresh-cut flowers) was not brought up when we buried our children or loved ones,” she said.

The demonstrators will return on Mother’s Day in greater numbers, she said.