A horrified daughter has been sent a letter addressed to her dead mum by council chiefs dealing with the ongoing scandal at Ayr Cemetery.
Devastated Jenna Louise Craig, 28, was stunned to find the letter was written to Joan Craig – her beloved mum who was buried at the cemetery’s crisis-hit extension last September.
The letter was issued on behalf of new council leader Martin Dowey who wrote to families to offer extra support including bereavement counselling.
The letter blunder comes after Jenna was told by cemetery bosses she was ‘lucky’ that her mum was only buried there for a few months and not years.
And the grieving daughter who lost her mum Joan to cancer last year has told how she won’t be able to redress her mum when she is exhumed as she will instead ‘dry out’ in facility.
Devastated Jenna told Ayrshire Live : “What is actually going on, the letter just says ‘Dear Joan’ how has that even happened?
“It is just gut wrenching.”
Jenna who lives in Whitburn, East Lothian is sent updates from her aunt Jennifer Craig who lives in Ayr and receives letters on her behalf.
Jenna said: “My aunt normally sends me a screenshot but this time she was that upset she had to phone me.
“It is just so disrespectful. These are meant to be official letters and they haven’t even been checked properly.
“After what has happened in their cemetery – the council should be scrutinising everything before it is sent out.”
Jenna who says she forked out £1,700 for her mum’s lair, has furiously hit out at bosses for claiming that she was “lucky” that her mum has only been buried there for several months and not years.
Jenna said: “At the very start of the water issues I phoned up a council official and was told I should ‘count myself lucky’ that my mum’s only been in there months instead of years.
“I just lost my only parent, I’ve not even had six months to grieve and now you are telling me this?!”
Jenna is yet to give permission for her mum’s body to be exhumed after being insulted by cemetery bosses previous letter to place her in a ‘new standard coffin.’
The grieving daughter who spent £6,500 on a special send off for mum Joan wants the coffin to be the ‘exact same’ as the black painted casket which cost around £1,000 – and she wants to have her mum redressed.
But instead she was told over a phone call that her mum will ‘dry out’ at a facility near Prestwick Airport before being re-interred into her grave.
Jenna said: “They told me she will be put in a facility – and she’ll dry out.
“That’s my mum they are taking about – it's not a bit of meat.
“My mum was put in a cherry wood coffin and it was painted black – I won’t be exhuming her until I get the same."
Jenna who gave her mum an incredible beach front send off has been left traumatised by her ordeal.
She said: “My mum was taken a long the beach by horse and carriage. It was the perfect send off."
“You think that’s it done she’s at peace. But no, she’s now lying in a grave full of water and she absolutely hated water. I’m left with constant visions of that.”
A spokesperson for South Ayrshire Council said: "We apologise for any errors in the correspondence that has been issued and we will investigate this further. We continue to meet with families throughout this difficult period to support them however we can."
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