Raw Deal tracks down missing gravestone after memorial company left customers in the lurch

SOMETIMES, working on the Raw Deal page is the best job in the world.

Getting a good result on behalf of a person who genuinely needs help is reward in itself.

Raw Deal was heartened and touched while helping Linda Henderson find the gravestone of her grandparents, Sydney and Bunty, she never thought she’d see again.

Linda, of Fraserburgh, had engaged a firm to add her uncle’s name to the headstone that stood in Rathen Churchyard, a few miles from the town.

She decided a firm named JG Memorials had given the best assurances that it could do the job exactly as Linda and her family required. However, it was in Skegness, Lincolnshire – almost 500 miles away.

But JG Memorials declared this wasn’t a problem and collected the stone a few weeks later.

Strangely, it also took the granite vase beside the stone, although there was no work to be done on it.

Linda paid £450 of the agreed £500 cost, the rest to be paid on delivery.

That was 18 months ago. All seemed to be fine, though the job seemed to be taking a long time, with various excuses given as to why the stone wasn’t returned.

But then JG Memorials went quiet. It stopped answering emails and the phone line seemed to be dead. Comments on its social media pages began to appear, with customers complaining of missing gravestones, unfinished work and a lack of information.

Months passed, with Linda emailing and sending recorded-delivery letters desperately seeking the gravestone. With all other avenues exhausted, she turned to Raw Deal.

We became detectives. It was obvious the stonemason’s firm was in trouble. But how much trouble?

When this sort of thing happens, a good plan is to ask the neighbours.

We traced JG Memorials to an industrial estate on the outskirts of Skegness and phoned the firms in units close by. They all knew the stonemason had gone, but no one could say exactly where.

Next we tried memorials businesses who might know what had happened to their competitors.

After a few calls we got lucky by finding the wonderful Ben and Laura Simpson of Alpha Memorials based in Alford, a few miles from Skegness.

Ben reckoned he knew the yard where JG had done its stone work.

He went out to the workshop, at Friskney, near Boston, and found the premises abandoned and overgrown. He could see, among the weeds, several headstones and at least one had the type of plinth Scottish stones often have.

Importantly, a sign was affixed to the fence saying the lease had been forfeited.

JG Memorials had done a moonlight flit, leaving its customers in the lurch. Luckily there was also a legal firm’s contact details on the notice.

Raw Deal contacted the lawyers, asking that if a gravestone and vase with the name of Linda’s grandparents were in the yard, might they see their way to releasing them as they were of no use to anyone else.

Ben and Laura said if access was allowed, and the stone was there, they’d get it in their van and arrange transport to Fraserburgh.

A special note of thanks should be afforded to Ben and Laura. They made several 33-mile round trips to the abandoned yard to help when it wasn’t their customer who had a problem. They gave their time because they are kind and considerate people.

As legal matters tends to do, it took a while to confirm it was OK for Ben to get in to the old yard. But once permission was obtained, things moved quite quickly.

Ben even managed to find Linda’s vase among the nettles. And now it and the gravestone are back in their rightful places.

A very thankful, and quite tearful, Linda was overjoyed. She’d almost given up hope.

She’ll never see her £450 again, but the sentimental value of the stone – the one her grandmother Bunty had picked out on the passing of her husband 15 years ago – more than made up for the loss of money.

The stone won’t be going on any more travels. Linda is to have a local mason add the name of her uncle to the stone in the new year.

READ MORE

Raw Deal: Linda can celebrate after a suite success

Raw Deal: Fans at Rod Stewart concert moved from front row seats to not being able to see the stage