Distressed parents find ‘congratulations’ cards on Melton graves

The upsetting discovery was made on Christmas Day morning as families visited the Thorpe Road burial site to pay their respects at an emotional time of year for them.

Rachel Hancock, who tragically lost daughter Lily 15 years ago when she was aged just 17 months, was taken aback to find a card with a picture of a Teddy bear on it and the words, ‘Congratulations, It’s a girl’, next to the headstone.

Around 10 others were found on the graves of other children in the cemetery and it is unclear whether the person leaving the cards had malicious intent or if they were misguidedly trying to offer comfort to grieving parents.

Rachel told the Melton Times: “However well intentioned this might have been, it is incredibly distasteful.

“It is the fact that someone has been wandering around touching our child’s grave, something which is very personal to us.

“It is all we have left of our daughter and her grave is not there for anyone to be touching it and leaving something like this on it.”

Rachel has been back since and was upset to find plastic flowers had been left on the grave and others in the children’s plots, which are near to the main entrance to the site.

She has removed the cards and the flowers to prevent others being distressed and is contacting Melton Borough Council, which manages the graveyard, to ask for better security there.

“I don’t know whether CCTV cameras would stop this thing happening but it is worth considering,” added Rachel.

“They took the gates off a few years back and that has also left the site quite open.”

The congratulations cards saying ‘It’s a boy’ or ‘It’s a girl’ were also spotted by Melton resident, Kirstine Smith, as she visited the grave of her daughter, Emily, who was a stillborn baby 20 years ago.

A card wasn’t left on her child’s plot but she was so distressed to see them on others nearby that she removed them before other parents suffered.

“Christmas is a particularly hard time for anyone who has lost a child, but to arrive at your child’s grave on Christmas day to find a card saying ‘Congratulations, It’s a Girl’ or ‘It’s a Boy’ is beyond bad taste,” she said.

“Why anyone would want to do something like that is beyond me - it is so upsetting.

“Our children’s graves are very personal to us and we do not need things like this being put on them at any time, not just at Christmas.”

Kirstine said she had been told that an elderly man often left Christmas cards on graves at the Thorpe Road site every year but it is unclear who was responsible for leaving the ‘congratulations’ cards.

She added: “These cards we found were nice cards and ones that you would be happy to receive if you had just given birth but not in these circumstances - it made me feel physically sick and spoiled Christmas Day.”

The Melton Times has approached the borough council for comment on any potential future security measures which can be taken.