I would like to take advantage of the "Letters to the Editor" space in your paper to address the low-life ____ who has been stealing flowers left on fresh graves in Greenwood Cemetery.

Flowers left on a fresh grave have not been discarded. They have been placed there as a sign of love and respect for the person who has just been interred there. By removing them, you are offending the sensibilities of family members and friends at a very sensitive time.

I'm not talking about the removal of a bloom or two from an arrangement, I'm talking about the wholesale clearing of flowers from a grave.

I am trying to imagine what you are doing with the casket spray from my father's coffin. Did it look good on your table during a family dinner on the holiday weekend? I hope you told your curious guests where the flowers came from. I further hope they didn't choke too badly when they found out. But then, if you are the kind of person who shops for fresh flowers in the cemetery I doubt that you would be honest enough to admit where they came from.

Or are you running your own little business drying flowers and then reselling them? It must be making money when you don't have to pay for supplies. I hope people buying dried flowers start asking where they came from.

I know my family are not the only ones who have been offended by your actions. Other families also have been upset by your recent "scavenging" efforts. Do you not realize that people return to a grave-site after an interment?

And please don't cultivate the fiction the flowers were removed by the cemetery staff. They will remove flowers as they fade and wither, usually after a few days, not within a few hours.

So be advised: when you are caught, there will be a line-up of people ready to deal with you - and not sympathetically.

Your actions are offensive, and unpardonable.

Steven Brown

via e-mail