CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — When we lose a loved one, the one thing we all want is for the process of paying our final respects to run smoothly.
Sometimes, however, it doesn’t. That was a local man’s situation, as he waited months for a grave marker for his mother.
He reached out to 10 On Your Side for help — and hopes what happened this week will expedite the marker’s delivery.
Hodges’ family is trying to do the right thing for the mother who gave so much. The family doesn’t want back the money they gave, all they want is the grave marker to make the mother’s gravesite complete.
Michael Hodges lost his 88-year-old mother Jessie Mae Hodge last February to congestive heart failure and pneumonia. (Michael Hodges added an “S” to his last name because in high school he says it was easier for his friends to say, so he kept the “S” to this day. His mother kept the last name spelled “Hodge.”)
She was a protective mother for four children, but the situation trying to secure her grave marker has caused her children to leave behind even more grieving.
“They won’t return my call. I drive out here and I get no answers,” said Hodges, referring to the staff at Roosevelt Memorial Park in Chesapeake.
In October, Hodges paid Roosevelt Memorial Park $1,978 for a grave marker. Nearly five months later, no grave marker, but Hodges says he’s been given the runaround multiple times.
“Every time I come here; I get the same bourgeois B.S.,” he said.
We found the sales representative who sold him the grave marker, Pamela Knight.
“You have to call the corporate office,” she said as we waited in the lobby. We reminded her we were talking to her because she’s the one who did business with him, and we wanted to know where the grave marker is.
We’ve been to Roosevelt Memorial Park before when they failed to deliver a memorial bench back in July 2020. Following our report, the bench was delivered.
Pamela Knight remembers that, too.
“Andy, you know the game,” she said to WAVY reporter Andy Fox. We asked her to identify what the game is.
“You don’t have the right to be here. You have to call the corporate office,” Knight side.
10 On Your Side was then asked to leave the office.
“You need to leave the premises,” one of the staff members said. We reminded them they needed to talk to Hodges. “We are going to talk to him, but not to you.”
We pointed out that is fine, all we want is the situation to be resolved.
We left, but here’s the good news: Hodges finally got his face-to-face meeting with Knight and management, and it lasted about 20 minutes.
“Thanks to 10 On Your Side… They didn’t say they were going to do anything except ‘We are going to check on it,’ and I said ‘Check on it, what is there to check on, what is the status of the gravestone?’” he said.
But fighting for his mom, Hodges did not feel alone.
“I’m glad you’re here because every time I come out here, they give me the bulls— runaround,” he said.
We weren’t allowed to go, but Hodges drove to his mother’s gravesite. While he was there, a phone call came into one of the workers on-site who handed the phone to Hodges. Hodges said he spoke to Roosevelt Memorial Park’s Area Manager Jim Welch who said something will happen by April 1.
“At least 10 On Your Side got him to get on the phone… And he said he is going to expedite the delivery, and I am going to hear something by April 1,” he said.
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