Mona Bundy got an unexpected surprise Easter Sunday — a surprise she said broke her heart.

The Coal Grove woman went to Woodland Cemetery to visit her late husband, Paul Bundy’s grave and found the eternal flame she had installed when he died in 2002 was gone. Vanished.

She and family members went looking for the flame and couldn’t find it anywhere. She later discovered the eternal flame had been removed by cemetery workers and got her memorial back.

Bundy is one of several people who have complained that figurines and other memorials to their loved ones have been taken off graves recently.

Kimberly Lynd of Ironton took her mother to visit the graves of family members and found a statue of Jesus that had adorned the graves of loved ones Clyde and Marie Dennin was missing. The statue had been there more than 20 years. Unlike Bundy, a search for the missing statue has been useless.

“I think they laid it out and someone else got it,” Lynd said.

Mary Klaiber, who is the cemetery’s secretary, said eternal flames, statues and other such decorations have always been prohibited and people are told that when they purchase plots.

“We go by the rules,” she said. “And the rules are posted on the back gate and the front gate. Nothing like that is allowed. It has never been allowed. It was getting so full. The rules are posted at both gates. There was just nothing else to do but to take it up and leave is at the garage so people can pick up their stuff.”

Family members contend otherwise. Both Lynd and Bundy said they did not know their mementos were against the rules and they received no notice they needed to remove them.

Klaiber said one of the big reasons for removing the items is mowing safety. When cemetery workers mow, the statues and other items create not only a logistical problem but a safety hazard. Another reason, she said, is aesthetics.

“It looks beautiful with that trash up off the ground,” she said. “They’re griping about it but there comes a time when we have to do something.”

Cemetery board chairman Jerry Rowe was out of town and not available for comment. Board member Arno Keyes said he has been ill and was not aware of what had happened. Fellow member Richard Price said he had not received any telephone calls from family members and had only found out about the issue by seeing comments posted on a local Internet Web site message board.

“I don’t know what to say without any information,” Price said.

Price said he plans to ask about this at Thursday’s cemetery board meeting. The meeting is at 4:30 p.m. at the caretaker’s

office at the cemetery. Price said he believes the meeting is open to the public.