A GRIEVING woman has spoken of her heartache after a gravestone for her stillborn baby was put on the wrong grave.
Rebecca Nicholson’s baby Harry died last month and after the funeral she received a phone call to say the headstone had been put in place.
But on visiting the cemetery to place flowers she was devastated to find it had been placed on the wrong grave.
When Rebecca Nicholson gave birth to stillborn baby Harry, she thought her grief could not get any worse.
But when she lay her boy to rest, she was devastated to find his headstone had been placed on the wrong grave.
Miss Nicholson, 20, had been excitedly awaiting the arrival of her first child, when she experienced complications at 29 weeks.
Her baby was suffering from a rare condition - Vein of Galen aneurysm - a congenital malformation of blood vessels of the brain. It was causing him to retain water and his heart was failing.
“They told me he wouldn’t make it,” said Miss Nicholson, who was induced and delivered her still born son on June 2 at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
The care home worker suffered pre-eclampsia and needed a blood transfusion after losing nearly five pints of blood.
The hospital arranged a burial at the baby garden at Overleigh Cemetery, Overleigh Road in Handbridge.
The family chose a headstone and were given a plot. But the stone mason realised the design they had chosen would be too big for the space so they were given one on another row.
“Mum and I went to see the plot a couple of days before the funeral and noticed a man was digging up the one that was too small,” said Miss Nicholson.
“We told someone at the cemetery so they could dig one on a new row. We had the funeral on June 25 and had to wait three weeks for the headstone. A woman rang me to say the headstone was there that day so we went up to put flowers down but it wasn’t there. Then my mum shouted that the headstone was on the other plot.
“I was just so shocked.
“It was horrible. It’s not even been that long since I lost Harry so it’s hard enough to go there and see just soil. It’s been like a rollercoaster. First we lost Harry, then I was really ill and it’s little things like this that make our grieving and everything we been through twice as bad.”
The headstone has since been moved to the correct plot and Miss Nicholson, of Ffordd Kinderley, Connah’s Quay says she feels better now the ordeal is over.
Miss Nicholson’s colleagues at Lexham Green teamed up with care home residents and their families to raise £1,200 for the couple to go on holiday.
They collected the cash through car boot sales, donations and fundraising activities and hope it will help them to come to terms with their grief.
Miss Nicholson said: “Everything has been so negative and they have been so wonderful and caring and I can’t thank them enough.”
A Cheshire West and Chester Council spokesman said the digging Miss Nicholson saw before the funeral was routine returfing.
He added: “We are very sorry to hear of Ms Nicholson’s loss.
“We can confirm that our Cemetery and Crematorium Service allocated a baby grave on June 14, following a request from the Countess of Chester Hospital.
“Ms Nicholson subsequently requested a larger plot in order to accommodate a particular gravestone memorial, and this was arranged. The details of the new grave were confirmed to the mason on July 6.
“Regrettably, the memorial was mistakenly placed on the wrong grave by the mason. We understand this was rectified as soon as the mason became aware of the error, and the memorial is now on the correct grave.”