“My anxiety level is so high, my blood pressure is too high … to see this,” she said.
That Sunday, his grave marker was missing at the Union Road cemetery. She found it about 100 yards away, trash-covered and along the roadside.
Chattams has receipts showing she paid Remember Me Flowers for the headstone and foundation in full, but cemetery caretaker Ferman Merritt said the company never paid for the installation.
“Because they owe me for previous work, I refuse to put the foundation down. That is why the headstone is laying here,” he said.
At the cemetery, another family said they also used Remember Me Flowers to order headstones, and that those haven’t been installed either. “The headstone is the final closure,” said Tony Bettison of Jefferson Twp. “To him it’s a business, to us it’s personal.”
Remember Me Flowers representatives could not be reached for comment.
Chattams said she just wants the cemetery and Remember Me Flowers to get the money straightened out.
“It’s taking too long. All I want is my headstone complete for my son. Nothing else,” she said.