STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The holidays are for spending time with family, even if they’re no longer here to celebrate.
For some, Christmas Day doesn’t start with the opening of gifts, but with a trip to the grave of a departed loved one.
Yvette Kartelias, whose husband Thomas Kartelias passed away in February, arrived at Ocean View Cemetery in Oakwood on Tuesday around 9 a.m. when the gates are scheduled to open to the public.
But upon arrival, Kartelias was greeted with a long line of cars anxiously awaiting the arrival of a security guard to open the gates.
As the clock ticked on, more and more grieving families arrived to visit their loved ones’ graves, resulting in a line of nearly three dozens cars, some of which poured out onto Amboy Road when the cemetery’s entranceway reached maximum capacity.
“It was like a parking lot in the front,” Kartelias said. “People were crying. Some came in an Uber. One person came in an Access-A-Ride holding flowers and balloons. It was a mess… My day was ruined, along with everybody else’s.”
She noted that some of those waiting in line had traveled great distances to visit the cemetery on Christmas, many of which left in frustration as the hours passed by.
“People had traveled from different parts of the state, from different states, and they couldn’t even get in,” said Kartelias. “It was a wasted trip for them. They couldn’t even visit their loved one.”
The gates were finally opened around 2 p.m., roughly five hours after the cemetery’s usual 9 a.m. opening time, though many of those who had arrived early that morning had already left.
Management from Ocean View Cemetery told the Staten Island Advance/SILive.com that there was an issue with the private security company contracted by the cemetery to open the gates each morning.
“The person responsible for opening yesterday had an emergency and the owner of the security company was scrambling to find a replacement without informing the cemetery. He…
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