Galilee Memorial Gardens
Elizabeth Hamilton
Professor
April 19, 2014

Galilee Memorial Gardens The place named Galilee memorial Gardens would not be of ant importance unless for the recent news that virtually shocked many Americans illustrating how desire for money, greed and personal well- being, prompted the owners of Galilee to engage in fraud and put the interest of society behind their own. The essay explores the case of Galilee in greater detail, paying attention to the causes and the outcomes of the situation. It is a perfect case that illustrates the need for constant public oversight of the corporate and business activities which in their pursuit of profits will not hesitate to desecrate the tombs, rebury corps, let alone sell something that is not their own. To cut the long story short, Galilee is one of the many cemeteries in Tennessee, and it would have remained unknown and unpopular if not for the recent scandal. The owner of the cemetery, Jemar Lambert chose to make some extra cash and thus used the cemetery beyond its current capacity for which he is now charged with theft of property and abuse of a corpse. Jemar sold many of the pre-need plots and ended up selling more than the cemetery could currently hold. Therefore, he chose to ultimately bury corpses outside the cemetery, on the lands that did not belong to him. Furthermore, after finding out that some graves were too old and unattended, and he expected that no relatives would ever know, he dumped multiple bodies in the same graves, apparently freeing up some space that can be resold, but without proper permission to do so(Jacobson, 2014). From the publicly available information one finds out that the state ordered Galilee to stop operations in 2011, yet the cemetery continued to operate till 2014 in a usual manner. In another article one learns that “the permit for Galilee expired in 2010, when state documents reflected they no longer had room to bury bodies, but that owner Jemar Lambert “continued to bury individuals after that, and continued to sell what they call pre-need plots,” which are burial plots purchased before death.” (Alter, 2014). No government or non-government agency ever posed questions why the cemetery was still in operation. As a result of such activities and the routine burial practices many families at present cannot be certain where the remnants of their relatives are located, because they were asked to leave before the casket was lowered into the ground. “Charles Branch tells reporters that workers at Galilee just stood around after a funeral service and he left before seeing his mother’s casket buried. He said he returned to the cemetery in Bartlett, but could not find his mother Pearlie’s grave.”(Thompson, 2014) To save space, Galilee put the bodies from the old or unattended graves into one grave and freed up space for additional graves Galilee Memorial Gardens was owned by Lambert’s family since 1993, yet after his father filed for bankruptcy in 2006, he was inclined to think of the ways to maximize profits. In this very case, it was much easier for the owners to put the bodies in another grave or even throw them away, since there was no control over how and where the bodies were buried. The clients, who purchased plots at Galilee in advance, were a bigger problem, yet there was another strategy. “For some of our clients, they never saw a fresh dug grave. They were led to believe that their family member would be taken care of properly. Some of the families have dedicated plots, but then they’d go back and visit and the headstone would be in a different place” (Alter, 2014). In this case, Lambert usually assumed that the family was extremely sad and sorrowed anyways to complain about the wrong location of the tombstone. Death and burials are taboo topics in our society, so hardly anyone would agree, even if Lambert offered to dig up the remnants and rebury it in the right place. Usually, the relatives agreed to the fact that the body was put in another place and seldom had objections until now. It appears that the case of galilee perfectly illustrates the imperfect human nature and their quest for profit, even at a cost to other people, society, traditions, customs and laws. The cemetery business is rather specific due to the taboo nature of death and burial, so the owners capitalized on it and tried to get the maximum out of the limited cemetery space. Galilee was not controlled by the government officials on a regular basis, so the owners realized that there was no oversight of who they bury, where they bury or if they bury at all, as long as there is a tomb stone that says that a certain person lies beneath. In practice, they dug up old graves, removed the remnants and the grave stone, threw the old gravestone away and put the remnants in a new place. Seeing how it is not customary to check if the body is in fact in the grave and if it is only one body in there, the owner of Galilee managed to put four to five bodies and remnants in one grave. None of the employees, who were involved in desecrating the graves, throwing away the old remnants and putting in fresh corps, ever questioned the status quo, objected or sued Galilee. The quest for money was certainly stronger than the quest for justice. After all, Galilee got sued only because many families at some point of time were unable to find the tombstones/ graves that belonged to their relatives. In other words, the owners of Galilee dug up and removed relatively fresh graves after successfully utilizing the space that belonged to the old graves. While violating the law and traditions and having the cemetery closed, the lambert family continues to operate tombstone and other funeral business. To summarize, Galilee Memorial Gardens is one of the many cemeteries in the country that remained unknown until present when a scandal with property theft, and corps violation made it notorious. The owner, who wanted to make some extra cash, chose to remove old graves, rebury the remnants and utilize the cemetery space in a more efficient and profitable manner. Older graves were removed, newer graves were given smaller (then initially ordered) size of a plot and in a different place. Some graves were put outside the cemetery and in some graves there were more than one body. The relatives were frequently told not to be present at a funeral and when they returned to find the tombstone in a different place, they seldom asked questions if there was a body under the tombstone and how many. Lambert, which operates tombstone and funeral business, in addition to the cemetery, relied on the taboo nature of the death and burial and no one complained or asked why the size of the grave was smaller than paid for and in a different place. What is more important, none of those workers who were personally involved in the process of removing the bones, corps and remnants ever turned Lambert in; it was only when some families could not find the graves and tombstones of their loved ones that the fraud became publicly known. This case reminds our society that societal control should be done over businesses of any kind due to their innate nature to maximize profits. Regardless of the industry, businesses are inclined to increase shareholder wealth, therefore, societal traditions and customs that surround such sensitive topic like burial and death, are not enough to keep them operating honestly and ethically. Only constant government and non- government supervision can keep businesses in ethical realm.

References:
Jacobson, K. (2014, January 24) Cemetery shutdown; owner charged with abuse of a corpse.
Retrieved from http://www.wmctv.com/story/24540906/cemetery-shut-down-owner-charged-with-abuse-of-a-corpse Thompson, C. (2014, February 11) 2nd Lawsuit in works against Tenn. Cemetery.
Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.devry.edu/eds/detail?vid=7&sid=6ff10b4d-f0d0-417b-9fa6-c8320493e890%40sessionmgr4004&hid=4208&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPXVybCxjb29raWUsaXAsdWlkJnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=pwh&AN=AP310c592552ea414e8cc9c25d2899e551 Alter, C. (2014, February 11) Families to sue Tennessee Cemetery accused of packing corpses into graves.
Retrieved from
http://nation.time.com/2014/02/11/families-to-sue-tennessee-cemetery-accused-of-body-stacking/