Greenfield Cemetery — Attraction in Town of Hempstead

Yesterday my husband and I were at the cemetery to lay cemetery grave blankets for Christmas and as usual, we were very distressed by the atrocious condition of this cemetery. It has gotten so much worse since the administration has changed.

In my grandparents’ section, 77, it seemed like all the leaves from the surrounding rows in this section were blown into my grandparents' row and just left there. See attached photo. Thankfully, my husband and I are always prepared with rakes when we go to this cemetery, and raked the leaves from their grave, and the two next to it. Also, there are a number of sunken graves in this section. They are so deep, that I don’t know how they don’t capsize the lawn mowers. How about reporting it to the groundskeeper and getting them filled in? And, no one ever trims the bushes any more. See attached photos of what should be headstones. We bring a hedge trimmer in the summer and trim the bushes away from my husband's parents’ grave in another section. And they aren’t even their bushes! Ground maintenance seems to be limited to just cutting the grass.

In Aug, we went to visit my family plot for my mother’s birthday and saw that the grave behind theirs had had a recent burial. They dug that grave by putting the machine on our grave and left large gouges in our plot. They never filled them in, just left it like that. When we went to the office to complain about it, the man in the office was nice and apologized, and said that he would have it repaired. When we went back the next week, it was filled in with the smallest amount of grass seed on top. We are always at this cemetery and take care of our plots ourselves, so we brought more grass seed with us because we knew they would do a lousy job. Of course, we weren’t surprised by what we found.

I just don’t understand the lack of compassion or consideration of the grave digging staff. They make a total disaster of everything around them when digging a grave. You can’t just hire someone who knows how to work a backhoe to dig graves. There needs to be proper training and supervision of the staff. They dig one grave and at least 2 on each side of it are left a mess with nothing but sand and rocks covering them with a little bit of grass seed. When we go to other cemeteries, Pinelawn in Farmingdale for example, they never disturb the graves around the one they are digging. Earlier this year in my grandparents’ section, they had knocked several headstones in a row either totally off their bases, or askew. Why?? Because they don’t pay attention or just don’t care. They are CSEA workers and good luck getting them out. Someone needs to care!

Unfortunately, my husband and I have many loved ones buried at Greenfield so we are always there. At one time, it was a beautiful cemetery, which it still is in the front and older sections, but in the new sections, it is disgusting. The lack of respect for peoples’ loved ones is a disgrace and shame on whoever is...

My father passed away 2 years ago, since it's close to home and we had other family members that have been buried here we chose Greenfield. Our funeral director who was absolutely spectacular called the cemetery and made an appointment for us to visit and purchase a plot. When we arrived at the Greenfield Cemetery office the doors were locked and nobody answered the door even after knocking, ringing the doorbell, and calling the office for 30 minutes. We then called our funeral director who contacted the person in charge directly once again. Within 5 minutes the doors opened and we could see that there were several workers in the office. Why didn't they answer the door or pick up the phone for the past 30 minutes...we had an appointment. My family finally meets with the man who is in charge and will be showing us the plots available. Although we were extremely respectful he was extremely rude, belligerent, and made us feel as if we were taking up his time. The next 25 minutes were an absolute nightmare and we couldn't believe how he spoke to my family. He made a very difficult time in our lives even worse with his disgusting behavior. On the day of the funeral, the grounds on the burial site were horrendous. There were mounds of dirt, excess wood, and litter surrounding the grave making it dangerous to walk near. It looked like an unstable obstacle course and people were afraid to walk near the casket and place flowers. Most family members threw flowers from a distance because they were afraid of tripping or falling. It's hard enough when dealing with the loss of a loved one, but it's so much worse when dealing with disrespectful people and situations like this. Unless things drastically change I would avoid Greenfield Cemetery. The Town of Hempstead executives...

Seems every time I have had to have contact with personnel they are very curt. It's like they are doing you a favor by even talking to you. There's no warmth. They changed the "manager" of this cemetery a few years back and it hasn't been positive. I'm not sure what they are supposed to do there, as far as upkeep, however, there isn't any as far as I can see. The graves can get quite overgrown if you aren't a regular there. Once I had a very large planter, with flowers, on my son's grave and when we went back 2 weeks later, it was gone. Someone stole it. I think the fence should be higher there because it is bordered by residential and the fence is very, very low. So either someone from the bordering town stole it or someone decided to take it for their own grave. We bought another plot there and now we are moving so I want to sell it. I was told you can ONLY sell it back to Greenfield at the price you bought it for, minus $150 for a change of deed fee. Amazing that the prices may have very well gone up for a plot, however, they only buy it back for what you paid and then will sell it for a higher fee and you are out $150!!! The town of Hempstead sure can find ways to take your money and make a profit on what you bought and now have to return. The other side of the cemetery is much nicer than the part where my son is buried along...