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Family Cleans Grand View Garden In Honor Of Beloved Mother, Grandmother and Friend

In January family and friends of Velia "Val" James gathered at Grand View Memorial Park from near and far during the cemetery's once a week visitation afternoon to mark what would have been her 69th birthday.

Instead of simply leaving traditional floral tributes, 31 of Mrs. James' loved ones chose to honor her by spending the afternoon cleaning up the entire Garden of Memory, where her cremated remains were interred during a burial service 12 years ago.

Mrs. James' daughter, Felicia James-Ceberio, traveled with her husband Julio from their home in Las Vegas. Her only grandchildren, Monique and JC, flew in from Northern California. Felicia's in-laws, Eddy & Caridad Ceberio flew in from Miami, Florida. "The rest of the group are great friends that joined us from all over Southern California," Felica told me.

While cemetery representatives pursue a sale of Grand View under terms reached in 2007 with the state's Department of Consumer Affairs Cemetery and Funeral Bureau, the public continues to have limited access to loved ones buried there. The gates are opened by volunteers each Sunday between 12-4 p.m.

Many families have told me that, like it or not, they work around the weekly schedule, marking special dates on the nearest possible Sunday to spend time at grave sites remembering occassions that hold deep personal meaning.

For the James-Ceberio family, the Sunday schedule worked out well this year. "The day was particularly special, because it was January 15, my Mom's birthday," Felicia said.

Felicia explained that she had not been to visit her mother's resting place for a few years and found out about Grand View's closure and legal problems when she looked up directions to the cemetery online. When she arrived in person, she was not happy with what she encountered.

"Needless to say I was heartbroken when I saw the condition of the park. When I was unable to locate her [grave marker] due to the roots I vowed to return and clean-up her final resting place. I called a few friends, my kids and in-laws and everyone said they wanted to help," she said.

The Garden of Memory is a circular portion of Section B, one of Grand View's oldest sections that dates back to 1891. The garden was developed separately in 1949 and has approximately 450 burial spaces, most of which are marked with small, uniform granite memorials. It features a vintage sundial at its center. Part of the walkway around the garden is damaged from the roots of an old shade tree that was removed in 2011.

To paraphrase a popular saying, sometimes it takes a village to accomplish big goals. Felicia found that she had just that kind of support for her idea.

"The owner of my company, Lincoln Spoor and his wife Sarah, as well as our director of finance, Jen Morse, donated money so that we could purchase gardening equipment and supplies. In addition, our company, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, donated doughnuts for all of the volunteers," she said.

"It was a great day and I know that my mom is proud of what we accomplished in her memory. It was hard work. However, we made such a difference. The before and after pictures speak volumes," Felicia added.

See Felicia's entire collection of photographs from Mrs. James' Birthday Clean Up here.

Do you have a visitation story you'd like to share with readers? Contact me at lisa.burks@yahoo.com with the details.

Families Share Their Stories at Visitation

Grand View will again be open today from 12-4pm for a court-ordered public visitation.

What happens during the openings? People come from near and far to visit the graves of their loved ones and volunteers assist them as needed. Some folks come every opening, others arrive for the first time in many years. Each visitation has special meaning and purpose to those who participate.

Khachatur Kzlyan of Hollywood buried his father Shagen at Grand View in December 2004. The cemetery closed prior to a headstone being installed so he and his mother, Rima, mark the space with flowers and potted plants when they visit each opening.

During a recent visit they found their offerings strewn about and questioned what happened. No other plants on adjacent graves had been disturbed. My thought is that the plants had been disturbed by some of the cemetery's squirrels or raccoons, having found critter paw prints on neighboring marble markers.

Khachatur and his mother were concerned that human vandals had made the mess. "I'd like people who do this kind of thing to know that cemeteries are sacred places," he told me. "They are sacred to everyone and particularly in the Armenian culture. To see this disrespect of what we left for my father, it is devastating to me," he added.

Two weeks ago, Jimmy Orpilla of Playa del Rey came to Grand View to mark the 11th anniversary of his son's passing.

James Jr. died two days after his 18th birthday in a 1999 car accident. With Jimmy were his three younger children, James III, 10, Christy, 7, and Victoria, 5. Also visiting that day was James' friend, Vadim Dzhalalyants from Beverly Hills.

On this particular day, Jimmy left a note on his son's grave marker for his ex-wife, James' mother, Maria Ferreyra, whom he has not seen since the funeral. Having raised James, Jimmy has photos that depict James' brief but happy life that he wants Maria to have, but doesn't know where she is or how to contact her.

I must say that James' headstone has stood out to me over the years, as it has to other visitors who adopt it by cleaning it and leaving flowers when they visit their family buried nearby, a fact that touches Jimmy deeply.

Jimmy explained the two photos show James in the uniforms of the sports he loved to play for Beverly Hills High School, football and baseball. The number 13 was his lucky jersey number. The quote "We never lost, we just ran out of time," was a favorite saying James repeated often in sport and turned out to be a prophetic epitaph.

Christy lovingly cleans the headstone of the brother she never got to meet

James wanted to play professional baseball and was zeroed in on that goal until the day he died. Jimmy told me that the two of them practically lived at La Cienega Park, practicing until way past dark, and that it was a labor of love for them both. "His work ethic was second to none," said James.

The 4'x6' plot of grass in front of James' headstone, dried out now, was originally transplanted from that park under the authority of then mayor Tom Levyn whose son was James' teammate.

"People thought that much about James," Jimmy told me. "When the cemetery was open, his grave would have flowers on it and lipstick kisses on the marker from his mother, cheerleaders, and his girlfriend Carter." Sadly, Carter passed away a few years after James, from leukemia. She's entombed at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park a few miles away.

Vadim agreed with Jimmy's assessment of the qualities that made James a good friend ~ his kindness, generousity, focus, intelligence and humor. He told me that he still has copies of the photos of James that are on the headstone in his bedroom. Vadim attends church in Glendale and looks forward to the time when the cemetery gates are open full-time so he can visit his friend more often again.

In the meantime, James' family and friends will continue to visit on court-ordered openings, and Jimmy hopes that James' mom will find the note and reach out to him from their son's grave.

Another blogger joins the ranks

My friend and fellow ValleyNews.com blogger, Fronnie Lewis, has joined the effort to chronicle Grand View's story.  Thank you so much, Fronnie!  It was great to see you out at the cemetery again this past Sunday taking notes for another great post!  We all look forward to reading it.

In the meantime, I highly recommend her first story, filed  on April 11, 2008, to readers.  View it here: Grand View Cemetery faces uncertain future.

Grand View inaccessible on Memorial Day this year

This year marked the first time in Grand View's 122-year history that the cemetery was closed on Memorial Day.  Read why here at valleynews.com.  My blog post also includes a look back at how this holiday dedicated to remembering the dead was marked at Grand View in the 1920s, as well as my visit with an Oregon couple who attended limited visitation on May 20.