Greenlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Wilmington on Dec. 23, 2011. (StarNews photo by Matt Born)
The full question:
“Greenlawn cemetery at 17th Street and Shipyard Boulevard has been burying people since I was a little girl. I am 50 years old. I was wondering if they are ever gonna run out of room to bury people there? Do they bury people on top of each other after so many years? They’ve gotta run out of room sometime.”
And the answer:
Greenlawn Memorial Park probably won’t run out of burial space anytime soon, according to the company that operates the cemetery.
“In this situation, I don’t think we’re in danger of running out of space,” said Jessica McDunn, public information officer with Dignity Memorial, which operates Greenlawn Memorial Park at 1311 Shipyard Blvd., Wilmington [Map this].
Greenlawn Memorial Park has 38 acres. About seven acres are undeveloped and could be used for burial space in the future, McDunn said.
But if a cemetery does run out of space, McDunn said, there are several options. The cemetery could buy more land, or it could use space in another cemetery.
Bodies can be buried on top of each other, McDunn said. Those are called double-depth graves, and it’s a service often requested by spouses. It’s not rare, McDunn said, but it’s not as typical, and it wouldn’t be used if a cemetery was running out of space.
Date posted: December 21, 2011
User-contributed question by:
DEBRA WARD
Talk to us!
Have a comment about this post or know more about the answer? Use this form to let us know. Note that all comments are moderated and must be approved before they are posted, although you may see your own comments the first time you post them.