AUSTIN -- The City of Austin is still working to put rules in place for grave decorations at city-owned cemeteries, but a private graveyard in South Austin is facing similar backlash from families who come to grieve.
Assumption Cemetery near South Interstate 35 and Ben White is a private, not-for-profit cemetery. It's also traditionally a Hispanic Catholic graveyard, where families often go above and beyond to decorate for their loved ones. The rule is one vase of flowers per grave and nothing more. It's been in place for more than 50 years, but is just recently being enforced. Now some families argue it's unfair and they want it to change.
The Flowers, balloons and holiday decorations that line the graves at Assumption are more than just mementos to the families who left them.
"God took him as a little angel. He's our little guardian angel now," said Gracie Baeza. She visits her grandson, Jayden Nathaniel Sanchez, at least once a month. Jayden was stillborn, and in the seven years since he died, they've tried to create memories he never had the chance to make.
"For sure every holiday we used to come and decorate and then they suddenly told us we couldn't. We still do but they come and throw it right away," she said.
The decoration restrictions have been in place since 1953 but previous managers did not enforce them.
"Some of my family is not happy with me enforcing these original rules and regulations," said Cemetery Director Paul Krotzer.
Krotzer says it's personal for him too. He has 18 family members buried there.
"These rules and regulations are here so that we're able to mow, we're able to weed eat and we're able to maintain the cemetery and to bury other loved ones as we continue on in the future," he said. "This is sacred ground. This is holy ground to me. So I just want this cemetery to be maintained as best it can be and for it to continue to be a cemetery and not more of a shrine."
The Baeza family says the decorations help them grieve and keep Jayden's memory alive.
"It hurts us because we try to make it pretty for him even if hes gone we want to make it to feel like hes still with us, you know," Baeza said. "He is gone but he's not forgotten."
As a compromise, Krotzer said they will allow additional decorations four times a year: birthdays, death days, Easter and Christmas.
The City of Austin faced similar controversy but now the rules are on hold as they work to create a Cemetery Master Plan. A spokesperson told KVUE they're hoping to find a balance between expressing grief, cultural sensitivity and also maintaining the grounds of their five cemeteries.
