Mother fined for mourning death of 5 week old son

[yozhik]

A British woman was fined £86 by crematorium officials for spending too long at the side of her dead five-week-old son.

UK media reported on Tuesday that Terrie Rouse incurred the penalty after spending an extra 10 minutes with her son, Zane, before he was taken to be cremated in the town of Milton Keynes. The town is about 105 kilometres northwest of London.

Link (http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/baby-funeral-mum-fined-for-overstaying-20090805-e8vk.html)

Speechless.
Saddened.
Angry.
Shocked.

[mrindigo]

Speechless.
Saddened.
Angry.
Shocked.

I'd mail it back to them with no money and pictures of the child while s/he was alive. That's insanity. They should be finned for being inhumane. Some people live in the land of the living, rather than the land of the dead and business like they obviously do. :mad:

[libertad101]

Kinda reminds you of N. Korean (if i'm correct) 'paid bullet' policy, huh?

[yozhik]

Basic human compassion should have "kicked in".
I just don't comprehend how this could even pass through the brain of a fellow human as "OK to do".
I mean ... what jerk off issued the fine?
Beggars belief.

[fallensoul]

If you look at the world as a logical rational person rather than a brainwashed one, you can actually see that we indeed do live in a INSANE world. Everything is backwards... almost like mirror image. WTF HAS HAPPENED!

[godspeed]

sad bastards.....how can you even turn to a mother who lost a baby and say im gonna have to charge you for running over the the half hour mark....smells of cp crap everywhere .

[unimatrix0]

There are no words. What the fuck is wrong with this world? That poor momma. :(

[gilly]

I'm glad we haven't lost our ability to be saddened and disgusted by things like this. Despite the efforts of tptb, with their constant bombardment of horrors and injustices, we still have our hearts in place and our humanity intact. We can still feel for that poor woman and her loss, and feel disdain for those who display a lack of common human decency by their callous actions.

We're not done for yet, while we can empathise with the distress of others.

[veritasvoice]

If you look at the world as a logical rational person rather than a brainwashed one, you can actually see that we indeed do live in a INSANE world. Everything is backwards... almost like mirror image. WTF HAS HAPPENED!

This is something I've been saying a lot lately. Our world is completely, utterly backward. And I think its been that way for a VERY long time. It's just when I read this that I'm rudely reminded of it.

[minton]

I couldn't quite believe this story when I first heard it, but the update to it is that Milton Keynes council refunded the £86 to Terrie Rouse. The extra charge had been automatically levied and added on to the bill by Milton Keynes council, as the extra time at the crematorium wasn't booked in advance.

It's unbelievably insensitive though for the council to charge any extra charge for time at a crematorium though, surely they must realise that when someone is at a service, especially in cases of a Mother or a Father being at the funeral of their child, the time they spend in the crematorium is going to be the last thing on their minds.



£8.60 a minute to grieve for dead baby

Monday, August 3, 2009

A grieving mother who took too long to say goodbye to her dead baby was hit with an £8.60 a minute penalty charge by the crematorium.

Terrie Rouse was told to pay an extra £86 for spending an additional ten minutes with her five-week-old son Zane's coffin.

Her partner, Lee Smythe, branded the charge imposed by the council which runs the crematorium as 'sick and disgusting'.

He added: 'If we had over-run by 30 minutes and had held up proceedings for other people I would understand but this was ten minutes.'

Baby Zane died in April from sudden infant death syndrome at their home in Great Linford, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.

They had to wait for three months to hold the funeral while tests were carried out. Following a church service, family and friends went to Crownhill Crematorium in Milton Keynes.

Mother-of-three Ms Rouse, 32, said: 'The vicar asked if I would like to spend a bit more time saying goodbye. I sat by the coffin for ten minutes, telling my son how much we loved him and begging him not to be scared.'

Mr Smythe said no one warned them they might hold up the next service which was was not due to start for 50 minutes after Zane's.

The couple were 'lost for words' when the bill from the crematorium included the £86 charge on top of the standard fee of £32.

Mr Smythe said: 'It was distressing enough having to wait for the funeral as we were left in limbo but this has just made it all worse.'

Milton Keynes Borough Council said the charge was levied automatically on families who did not book extra time for their service.

It added: 'However, when we learned that there were extenuating circumstances we, of course, refunded the extra charge.'


http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?%A38.60_a_minute_to_grieve_for_dead_b aby&in_article_id=713869&in_page_id=34

[vetis]

no way would they have given her the money back if the story didnt go national.

[lizzy]

^^^ i think your right vertis...........it's so sick , makes you wonder how many they have already fined!!

[minton]

no way would they have given her the money back if the story didnt go national.


I think you could be right. As far as I know, the council were contacted first of all by the local Milton Keynes newspaper, the "Milton Keynes Citizen" about the extra charge and the council said they would look into it. Then obviously other parts of the media got hold of the story as well, and they've probably been bombarded with enquiries about it and they've realised how atrocious it would make them look if they don't hurry up and refund the money and this has very probably hastened their decision.


http://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/news/Family-hit-out-at-cruel.5514172.jp

[wildhorse]

I'm glad we haven't lost our ability to be saddened and disgusted by things like this. Despite the efforts of tptb, with their constant bombardment of horrors and injustices, we still have our hearts in place and our humanity intact. We can still feel for that poor woman and her loss, and feel disdain for those who display a lack of common human decency by their callous actions.

We're not done for yet, while we can empathise with the distress of others.

spot on

they try and make evil just an everyday blahzay occurrence, but it is only serving to wake people up to awful goings on like these.


love with the family xx

[anthony65]

They were just following orders...

[disorder2k8]

yes its very sad, what are you all going to do about it :confused:

[ennui]

The most shocking thing about this is that they have an automatic fine system in place for people who overrun at crematoriums.

Firstly, it's very questionable that there is ANY kind of fine system in such circumstances and secondly it should NEVER be automatic!!

We're talking about people who have just lost a loved one. Where has the COMPASSION gone?

[ennui]

yes its very sad, what are you all going to do about it :confused:

I would suggest that we all write to Milton Keynes Council suggesting that they do away with the automatic fines and instead put in place a system where they review each case BEFORE any such fines are sent out.