Woman Gets ‘Sucked’ Into Parents’ Grave, Files Significant Lawsuit

Woman Gets ‘Sucked’ Into Parents’ Grave, Files Significant Lawsuit
The incident took place in December 2016 at St. Charles Resurrection Cemetery in Long Island. (Google Street View)
Jack Phillips
3/17/2019
Updated:
3/18/2019

A woman who was visiting her parents’ grave in New York sank into the burial plot, a lawsuit claimed.

Joanne Cullen bent down to fix a bow on a wreath that was placed on the tombstone when a sinkhole formed under her, according to court documents.

“It caused her to fall forward and smash her head on the tombstone,” her lawyer, Joseph Perrini, told the New York Post. She cracked a tooth as a result.

The woman then tried to “bounce back and she started sinking into the ground and grabbed the sides of the tombstone,” he said.

The incident took place in December 2016 at St. Charles Resurrection Cemetery in Long Island.

“Getting sucked into your parents’ grave when you go to visit them on a cool December afternoon with the sun going down … it’s terrifying and traumatizing,” the lawyer told the newspaper.

The incident took place in December 2016 at St. Charles Resurrection Cemetery in Long Island. (Google Maps)
The incident took place in December 2016 at St. Charles Resurrection Cemetery in Long Island. (Google Maps)

Cullen, 64, is now suing the cemetery for $5 million in Queens Supreme Court.

She claimed in the lawsuit that the incident left her an emotional wreck.

“I will never go back there again,” Cullen said, reported the Post, adding that she now fears walking in open fields.

A lawyer said gravediggers who filled a grave next to the one where Cullen’s parents were buried left an underground space that formed into a sinkhole. (Google Street View)
A lawyer said gravediggers who filled a grave next to the one where Cullen’s parents were buried left an underground space that formed into a sinkhole. (Google Street View)

After the incident, she also “has nightmares” and suffers from headaches, the suit claimed.

She also had to get counseling as a result, reported the Post.

Perrini claimed the gravediggers who filled a grave next to the one where Cullen’s parents were buried had left an underground space that formed into a sinkhole.

Other details about the case are not clear.

Cremated Mom ‘Gets Smoking Hot Body’

Sybil Marie Hicks from Ontario passed on Feb. 2, at the age of 82, and her obituary is going viral.

She worked with two of her children to pen the obituary.

“It hurts me to admit it… but I, Mrs. Ron Hicks from Baysville, have passed away,” the obituary in the Hamilton Spectator said.

“I passed peacefully with my eldest daughter, Brenda, by my side February 2, 2019 at 8:20 a.m.,” it added. “I leave behind my loving husband, Ron Hicks, whom I often affectionately referred to as a ‘Horse’s [expletive].’”

She also said she left behind “children whom I tolerated over the years; Bob (with Carol) my oldest son and also my favorite. Brian (with Ginette) who was the Oreo cookie favorite, Brenda AKA ‘Hazel’ who would run to clean the bathrooms when she heard company was coming.”

It continued: “I graduated from Waterdown High School with honors while wearing my shiny bright saddle shoes. I later graduated from Hamilton General Hospital School Nursing class of 1957B — Best Class EVER!”

And she quipped: “I finally have the smoking hot body I have always wanted… having been cremated.”

She concluded with, “For those of you who are wondering who assisted me in writing this… it wasn’t my husband, it wasn’t my oldest, nor was it my youngest ... Thank you all for sharing my life with me. I am off to swim to the buoy and back. Love, Sybil.”

CTV News reported that she battled Alzheimer’s disease for 18 years.
A stock photo shows a grave. (Madison Grooms/Unsplash)
A stock photo shows a grave. (Madison Grooms/Unsplash)

The obituary said that the “hell of a lot of stuff”  included two old TVs, a used toaster, and an Oldsmobile complete with a spoiler because “she loved putting the pedal to the metal.”

“If you’re looking for 2 extremely large TV’s from the 90s, a large ceramic stork (we think) umbrella/cane stand, a toaster oven (slightly used) or even a 2001 Oldsmobile with a spoiler (she loved putting the pedal to the metal), with only 71,000 kilometers and 1,000 tools that we aren’t sure what they’re used for. You should wait the appropriate amount of time and get in touch. Tomorrow would be fine. This is not an ad for a pawn shop, but an obituary for a great Woman, Mother, Grandmother and Great-Grandmother born on May 12, 1921,” it said, the CBC reported.
Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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