Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

I am writing this in regards to East Union Cemetery in Manteca.

I went to put Christmas flowers out for my niece Susan Marion Belden but couldn’t find her headstone. I went back the next day and still couldn’t find it. There was a gentleman who looked up where she should be and then proceeded to help me find her headstone.

In 20 years I never had a problem locating her headstone. The both of us couldn’t find it.

He then went back to look for the names that would be next to her’s and that’s when we realized her headstone had been buried under 8 plus inches of dirt and grass. My heart instantly broke and I started crying. He ran to grab a shovel and started to dig up around her headstone. I could not believe how deep it went. He apologized profusely.

He packed her headstone down and we both cleaned up her headstone and the ground around the headstone. I then asked him who to complain to and he said the City of Manteca or better yet put it in the Manteca Bulletin.

How many headstones are like this especially if they don’t have family nearby to check on them?

To me it looked as if someone had been buried nearby and the extra dirt was left on top of my niece’s headstone because that was how much dirt there was.

I understand this has happened before but it should never happen again.

Kirsten Belden

Manteca