oddly enough

oddly enough

Gravediggers compete in race judged on speed – and style

DEBRECEN, Hungary

Digging their way to the top, 18 two-man teams of Hungarian gravediggers displayed their skills Friday for a place in a regional championship to take place in Slovakia later this year.

Participants in the contest in plot 37A of the public cemetery of the eastern Hungarian city of Debrecen were being judged on their speed but also getting points for style – the look of the finished grave mounds.

Janos Jonas, 63, who teamed with his son, Csaba, saw the competition run by the Hungarian Association of Cemetery Maintainers and Operators as a sort of last hurrah as he was just a few weeks from retirement.

“We didn’t have to prepare in any special way because we do this every day,” said Jonas, from the nearby village of Hosszupalyi. “This is good earth, quite soft and humid, just right for the event.”

Organizer Iren Kari said they hoped the race would help increase respect and recognition for the gravediggers’ profession and attract more people to the job, which is under threat, for example by the increasing popularity of cremations.

“These men see death every day. Sometimes people joke about them while they work, but gravediggers are human, too,” said Kari, who is advocating for gravediggers to get access to psychological support to better handle the strains of the job. “We are having difficulties finding replacements for our retiring employees. Young people today don’t like to dig and work.”

All contestants had shovels, rakes, axes and pickaxes to dig graves 2 feet 7 inches wide, 6 feet 6 inches long and 5 feet 3 inches deep, but no two teams seemed to use the same technique.

Woman charged after body found in freezer sold at yard sale

GOLDSBORO, N.C.

Police in North Carolina are looking for a woman after authorities say her mother’s body was found in a freezer that she sold in a yard sale.

Marcella Jean Lee, 56, of Goldsboro is being sought on a charge of failure to report the death, media outlets reported. An autopsy revealed no signs of foul play in the death of 75-year-old Arma Ann Roush, who lived with her daughter. Roush was last seen in August.

Police said a neighbor bought the freezer from Lee for $30. It was taped shut, and Lee apparently told the neighbor that church members would come by to pick up items in the freezer. The neighbor said the seller told her the items inside the freezer were for a Sunday school project. Weeks after the purchase, no one had come for the items, so the neighbor opened the freezer and discovered Roush’s remains.

According to the neighbor, the daughter was moving out of state and told her not to open the freezer, which she referred to as a time capsule, until church members could come by and collect the contents inside.

Associated Press