‘Very hurtful’: St. Pete widow asking what happened to her plot next to husband at troubled Royal Palm
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — Fred Lee Thompson’s headstone at Royal Palm Cemetery is finally in place, but his widow is fighting a new dispute involving the plot she thought was reserved for her.
“It’s just been terrible,” Hazel Thompson said. “[Losing my husband] was hard enough. This has made it worse.”
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Ms. Thompson, 77, of St. Petersburg, said she signed off on the headstone when she paid Royal Palm $1,130 for the monument last January.
The stone was not laid into place at the gravesite until this month.
Royal Palm District Director Ivana Rawbon blamed the delay on headstone supply problems and Thompson’s changes in the wording.
Ms. Thompson denied that in a heated discussion over her husband’s grave.
“She signed the contract, not the proof,” Rawbon said.
“I signed a proof with that on it,” Thompson said, pointing to the marker. “I signed a proof with that on it.”
Thompson denied Rawbon’s claim the proof was not signed until last October, about four months before the stone was installed.
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“I’m not lying,” Rawbon said to Thompson. “I’m just going from the proof.”
“You all just screwed up,” Thompson said. “You don’t know what you’re doing here.”
After her late husband’s headstone was put in place, Thompson noticed another problem.
Thompson said she has been making payments on the gravesite next to her husband’s final resting place. But now there appears to be someone else buried in that plot.
At first, Rawbon disputed the claim there is not enough room for another grave next to Thompson.
Rawbon was less positive about her graveside assertion in an email sent after the discussion at the cemetery.
“I am now investigating the complaint about her plot, but I do not have an answer for you,” Rawbon said. “We need to measure and probe each grave in the row before I can make a determination.”
Thompson said she does not need an investigation to tell her there’s no room for another plot.
“No,” Thompson said when asked if she thought there is an open plot next to her husband. “It’s very, very hurtful.”
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Thompson said she has lost confidence in Royal Palm and wants her money back.
“I’ve had too much trouble with these people,” Thompson said. “Sometimes I just sit down and think about it and cry. Because you shouldn’t have to do this. Pay all your money and go through all this.”
Rawbon reflected on Royal Palm’s troubled past while discussing Thompson’s situation. Work & Son, the cemetery’s previous owner, went bankrupt and a series of complaints prompted a state investigation.
“Since we took over, it has been a daily struggle to reverse the damage caused by the previous owner,” Rawbon said.
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