MIAMI – For T.Y. Hilton Sr., his mother's gravesite has been a place of refuge and hope.
"Sometimes when I'm feeling down, I can talk to mom," said Hilton, father and former coach of the Indianapolis Colts star wide receiver of the same name. "Reliving the old times when I was coming up, making believe hearing her voice talking back to me, 'I'm proud of you.'"
But Sunday he said he was told by the manager at Dade Memorial Park cemetery that there had been a terrible mistake: Lula Mae Hilton, who died in 2007, wasn't really buried where they had been led to believe she was buried.
"They told me they were moving the headstone," he said. "When they called me, I relived everything again. How could this happen?"
Hilton was told that his mother's gravestone would have to be moved because someone else actually owned that plot and would have to be buried there. So where was his mother?
Hilton said Debbie Ramirez, a manager with Caballero Rivero Cemeteries and Funeral Homes, told him that his mother was actually buried in the plot directly to the right of the one where he had been visiting.
Yet Hilton said he clearly remembers the grave being dug in that spot and watching his mother's casket being lowered into it. He said the plot to the right, where the cemetery is telling him his mother is located, has remained undisturbed all those years.
"They dug the hole right here, so I don't know what's going on," he said. "They dug the hole right here and put the headstone right here, so how did she get (in the plot nearby)?"
When questioned, Ramirez refused to answer any questions but said they would be forthcoming from the corporation. But calls went unanswered and a spokeswoman issued a terse and evasive email.
"We are currently working the family to rectify the situation," she wrote. "We will not discuss the matter out of respect and privacy to the families we serve."
Hilton said he has little trust in what he's being told and plans to return to the cemetery on Tuesday with his attorney to try to get some kind of assurance about where his mother is actually buried.
"It doesn't make any sense," he said.
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