Husband, city battle over size of twister victim's tombstone

Gravestone too large, tornado victim's family told

Bianca Prieto, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 24, 2007 at midnight

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Life hasn't been easy for Gustavo Puga and his two young children since a tornado ripped through their Holly home in late March and carried his wife away.

His external wounds have healed, but the ones inside his heart remain fresh.

Now he faces a new battle - one with the city of Lamar and its Parks and Recreation Department - and Puga says he won't give up until he's won.

The headstone he and his 3-year-old daughter Noelia chose in June for his wife, Rosemary Rosales, has been deemed too big for the plot she is buried in at Lamar's Riverside Cemetery.

The 27-inch-by-54-inch custom marble marker made in Mexico, complete with an engraved slab the length of the grave, is a safety hazard that people might stumble over and cannot be placed at the cemetery, the city says.

"(Puga) wants to put it at the length of the site, and we can't accommodate it," said Darla Scranton Specht, Lamar's city attorney. "We can place it across the top or the head of the site, but not the length. We can't accommodate it for safety purposes."

Rosales was killed on the evening of March 28 when a tornado ripped her home to shreds. Rosales' husband and daughter were at home with her, but were spared. Her 7-year-old son, Gus, was at his grandmother's home nearby.

After Rosales' death, the $8,000 the family spent years saving so Puga could buy his own semitrailer was used to bury her.

"I was in hell," Puga said. "I know she wouldn't have liked me doing that, but I had to."

In June, Puga decided to travel to Juarez, Mexico, with his mother, Aurelia, an aunt and his daughter to choose a stone for his wife.

They drove for 10 hours each way in a borrowed pickup truck to a grave marker company in the border town. Puga chose the one he liked, snapped a picture of it with his cell phone and drove back to Colorado.

Puga said he showed the digital photo to the cemetery's overseer, Joe Neuhold, who, he said, initially OK'd the stone. So Puga called the shop in Juarez and placed the order.

Neuhold declined to discuss his conversation with Puga and referred questions to the city attorney.

When Puga showed up at the Lamar city offices with the marker two weeks later to purchase a permit to lay it, the city wouldn't issue him one.

"I've paid for the spot where she was buried and I wanted that stone," said the soft-spoken Puga. "I wasn't able to spend the rest of my life with her, and I wanted something nice for her. I want something for my kids to see that there is something there for her."

The cemetery, just north of U.S. 50 along East Maple Street, holds some of the oldest graves in town, Specht said.

In addition to safety concerns, Specht said the large headstone posed other problems such as blocking the way for mowers used to cut around the graves.

Puga said he now wants to talk with the Lamar City Council.

"I'm going to fight it," Puga said, adding that placing the grave marker will help bring some closure to the tragedy.

"I just wish that none of this would have ever happened."

prietob@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5219

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