A cemetery in central England that bills itself as “a unique independently owned cemetery” has just implemented an idea so bad, so callous, so greedy, that you’d think they’d been taken over by an American private equity firm. But alas, its owners are just mean, as the cemetery has implemented a new pricing system that requires grieving people to pay a fee to enter the cemetery to visit their deceased loved ones. It’s some real ghoulish shit.
Starting in January 2025, only VIP pass holders will be allowed to enter the Garden of Remembrance on weekdays after 3 PM, on weekends or holidays, or when the office is closed. Good luck trying to gain access any other way because the cemetery put up a bunch of electric gates to prevent people from entering without paying the fees. The fees for these VIP passes are £10 to visit the cemetery rose garden and £5 to visit a grave or cremation plot.
Let’s be abundantly clear about something here: if you read that and thought, “Well, that’s not so bad! Why are people complaining about such low fees!?!” Just know that’s a test to determine whether or not you are a monster. Charging people to visit the graves of their dead friends and family members is one of the most inhuman things most of us have ever heard of and you are the disturbed freak whose brain has been so poisoned by money that you’ve devalued human life in the name of a buck. I speak for the rest of us normal people who just want to be able to see our family members at their gravesites without having to pay a few dollars when I say, please, go fuck yourself you goddamn sociopathic maniac.
I’m not the only one mad about this. So are the locals whose friends and family are buried in this cemetery. A man named Mark Bourne is buried in the Garden of Remembrance. Speaking with Stoke on Trent Live, his daughter Jode said, “Now I need to pay a membership fee to visit my dad’s grave. This is an absolute disgrace. Shame on you Garden of Remembrance.”
The cemetery’s owner, Jason Taft, says that people have got it all wrong. The cemetery will stay open from 9 AM to 3 PM, Monday through Friday for the general grave-visiting public. But if you want to visit from 3 PM to 9 PM when it closes, then you’ll need a VIP pass. He says the new security measures aren’t to keep out those who haven’t paid for VIP access but to protect those visiting their deceased loved ones from potential break-ins. He also says that he gave 90 free passes “to his most vulnerable customers,” which I’m guessing means the most economically disadvantaged.
None of that, of course, makes it any better. The simple, fundamental fact that you are charging money to let people see their dead loved ones makes you more of a ghoul than if any of those bodies were to rise from the dead. This is simply one of those moments in life where you did a bad thing and you are full-on bad. There’s no nuance. No spectrum. You suck.
The post This Cemetery Is Charging for VIP Passes to Visit Dead Relatives appeared first on VICE.
The post This Cemetery Is Charging for VIP Passes to Visit Dead Relatives appeared first on VICE.
