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Several years ago, I posted about a stray gravestone that was placed for safekeeping inside the fence of the historic French Burying Grounds in New Milford, NJ.
There was no corresponding gravesite for the marker... for Bertha Reetz who died in 1949. And no one could determine how or why the headstone, still in pristine condition, had been abandoned.
But last week workers from Richard Grubb & Associates (above photo), who are currently restoring headstones at the historic site, discovered the answer: Ms. Reetz is actually interred in a family mausoleum at nearby Hackensack Cemetery.
An offer was made to deliver the rogue gravestone to Hackensack, but the cemetery declined, so the stone will remain at the site in New Milford in perpetuity.
Here is the mausoleum...
...and, with a prayer and a peek inside the glass on the entry door, I confirmed that Ms. Reetz indeed rests in peace there.
But she will always have a place in New Milford too...
