I would like to share the experience that happened to me. I went to Sarasota Memorial Park today, February 6th, to visit my father on his birthday. My father passed away in 2006 and we had him buried at SMP. As I entered, the place was deplorable. The office was closed, yet it was 10 AM, and the only person at the site, a grounds keeper NOT attending to anything aside from his cigarette, explained he had no knowledge of why the office was closed. "They SHOULD be open, but no one told me why they aren't."
I have grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles in the Mausoleum at Sarasota Memorial Park. I had not been there in some time and on a recent visit I was horrified at the conditions of the area. Unraked leaves, sand, no grass, ant hills surround the Mausoleum. Many of the letters and numbers from the dates appearing on the crypts were missing. It was late in the day and I spent quite some time walking around and taking pictures of the conditions. It started getting dark and I noticed that there is absolutely no lighting anywhere in the Park. There were people riding bicycles through the park laughing and have a good ole' time while there were people there to spend some quiet time with lost loved ones. It is disgraceful. I planned on joining my family there when it was my time, but am contacting my attorney to make other arrangements. It breaks my heart that so many people are disrespected with their final resting place in this type of condition.
As a side note, an office woman finally showed up 40 minutes after the cops (most likely after she heard the voicemail I left on the telephone number listed on the door). She aggressively apologized stating her mother just passed away and that she was in the process of flying up north. I do apologize for lack of sympathy (mainly because I believe she was lying to overshine the obvious mistakes and neglect) but a woman in a position that handles death all day long should have a better ability to manage her business life and a death in her own family better.
Place is a bit rundown. The street frontage building is overgrown with weeds and lack of appeal. This is first impressions, but it doesn't really get any better later on. I asked the female attendant (who wore a bandage across her face) if I could use the restroom. She told me it was broken and she just runs across US41 to Sunoco. :/ Wow, really? I had 10 minutes before the service started, so risking my life by running across 41 to pee wasn't going to happen. This place is no bueno.
With it's lush rolling landscape I can't imagine a better final resting place for me than Sarasota Memorial Park. When my spectral form rises from my grave-site I can listen as the traffic rushes past on US 41 or I can take a leisurely stroll along Stickney Point toward fabulous Siesta Key. There are somber funerals almost every weekend which are moving & sometimes entertaining. The caretakers really have pride in the landscape too. If you plan on dying in Sarasota County I would recommend this cemetery above all others!
After driving around, I approached the worker again and let him know that a homeless person had set up camp near the section I believed my father was in, and that I did not feel comfortable approaching that area to look for the plot. The worker said he would get someone on it. After 20 minutes of looking for my father and not locating him, I realized no one had handled the homeless man. I called Sheriff's office myself and within 10 minutes two police officers came to remove the vagrant. This was not the experience I was expecting when I set out to have a personal remembrance of my father. I do not know what has happened to the management and upkeep of this facility in the past eight years, but something needs to change.
It is Mothers Day. I needed to have quite time to mourn my daughter. A man walking his dog came through the park also a woman bicyclist. It is a quiet safe place for these activities however PARK does not always mean recreational. I felt these people are violating and disrespecting the families of the passed loved ones. This is inappropriate and should be monitored and a stop put to it. It was hurtful to me. I want to be buried by my daughter but the thought of people disrespecting the very ground the dead are laid to rest in is appalling. Why is there no one at least checking on this area? The Indians, long before us, had the decency to designate burial grounds as a sacred place for their dead to rest in peace. This is heart breaking enough, then to watch people making it a recreational park for the day only adds to the grief! How can people do this? The ants were crawling on my feet as I stood by my daughters grave. The other comments on this site were from a year to three years ago and of the same nature. Looks like the management either don't read them or really don't care about what people think and feel. Shame on you SMG management!
I asked him if he could help me find my father's grave plot as it has been several years since I visited. He shrugged his shoulders and told me no and that was the responsibility of the (nonexistant) office worker.
Sarasota Memorial Park is a US Cemetery based in Sarasota, Florida. Sarasota Memorial Park is located at 5833 S Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34231, USA.
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