Visiting a gravesite is a way many pay their respects to a loved one from the past. A woman’s father was buried over 40 years and it turns out, she’s been visiting the wrong person the entire time.
Sylvia Ross buried her father, John Thomas Thompson, at Witton Park Cemetery in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, in 1979. She regularly comes to see his grave on holidays and birthdays. Only recently did Ross find out she had been spending so much time with a complete stranger.
A man named Frederick Brown is actually buried where Ross believed her father had been resting. It turns out, her father was actually lying in an unmarked grave a few yards away.
The family came to know about this mistake only when they called Durham County Council about putting a memorial up on their double plot. Lynette explained: “When my grandad died, mam called the council to ask them to put a marker where he had been buried so she knew which plot she was going to. They put it on the plot we’ve been visiting my whole life and have taken flowers to every birthday, Christmas, and Father’s Day while he has actually laid there with nothing,” Lynette, Sylvia Ross’ daughter, said.
In 1979, the cemetery was run by Wear Valley District Council but it was then handed over to Durham County Council in 2009 when it became a unitary authority. Once council was made aware of the historic mistake, they carefully moved the items to the correct grave as soon as possible.
The grave has since been corrected and Durham County Council’s bereavement services manager apologized for the pain the family has experienced during this time.