A WIDOW who took her family to visit her husband’s grave on Fathers’ Day was dismayed to find she could barely see it in the overgrown churchyard.

Linda Hicks, 63, of Limes Avenue, Chigwell, went to tend to her husband Stanley Hicks’ plot in the graveyard of St John’s church, Buckhurst Hill High Road, with their daughter and grandchildren on Sunday.

But they were met with three-foot tall grass and weeds surrounding the headstone, which has been in place for about eight years.

“I’ve never been so shocked in all my life,” she said. “There were huge daisies, about three feet high, and you could not see the gravestones properly.

“Other people looked distressed to see it in such a state as well.

“We had to fight our way through the grass to get to my husband’s grave.”

Although she lives in Chigwell, she decided her husband should be buried in the graveyard at St John’s because his brother, parents and grandparents are laid to rest there.

“A great, great uncle of his who died in the First World War has his name carved on the lychgate,” she added. “If his mother was alive, she would be heartbroken by the way it’s been left.”

Her husband died when he was 61 and she said tending his grave was a way for their grandchildren, who are eight and 10, to pay tribute to him.

“They say ‘we’re going to granddad’s garden’ and they’ve always called it that, because the oldest one was only three when he died,” she added. “They like to take flowers and fill up the watering can.”

The family managed to cut back some of the grass surrounding Mr Hicks’ headstone and Mrs Hicks has written to the church.

“It’s not acceptable that it’s been left,” she added. “The weather’s been a little bit damp, but it’s never been as bad as this.”

The chairman of the church’s buildings committee, Patrick Coppeard, said: “I’m really sorry someone is distressed by it, but there’s not a lot we can do.

“Unfortunately, this year has been an exceptional year. There’s quite severe growth.

“It’s maintained by volunteers and a lot of them are younger men, who have been in the middle of exams.”

He said volunteers had started cutting back the grass yesterday (Monday), but it was a big task to clear the whole graveyard.

“We went out to tender to get it done professionally and were told the cost would be £30,000 a year,” he added. “It would take a professional company seven days to cut it all.”

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