Grieving families already carry more pain than most people will ever understand.
Their sorrow is often treated as a disease that needs to be cured, and they’re expected to make others comfortable by appearing “over” something they will never truly heal from.

When someone we love dies, we aren’t simply sad — we are forced to learn an entirely new way of living, navigating birthdays, anniversaries, and painful holidays while the rest of the world celebrates.The Archdiocese of Los Angeles sets the policies for San Fernando Mission Cemetery, including strict limits on when families may place decorations at their loved ones’ graves.
As of now, only Christmas, Lent, and Día de los Muertos are allowed.

For many grieving families, this policy is unreasonably rigid and deeply unfair.
Losing a mother is a universal human experience — one that reshapes a person forever. It is a wound that never fully closes and a relationship that can never be replaced.

Imagine visiting your mother’s resting place on Mother’s Day — one of the most emotionally significant days of the year — only to discover that the flowers, tokens, and decorations you placed with love were removed and thrown away.

Not because they posed a danger.
Not because they were harmful.
But simply because the cemetery does not permit decorations on that day.

Mother’s Day itself was born from grief.
It was officially established in 1908 by Anna Jarvis to honor her deceased mother — a day rooted in remembrance, not commercialism.

It wasn’t about cards, brunches, or chocolates.
It was about love, loss, and the enduring bond between a mother and child.

Mother’s Day belongs to grievers — and it should be honored fully, especially in a sacred place of mourning like a cemetery.

For many people, holidays are not joyful days on a calendar.
They are reminders of absence — sharp, painful, and unavoidable.

Grieving families honor their loved ones in the ways they can:
by spending Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, birthdays, and death anniversaries at the graveside, bringing color, warmth, and presence to the place where their loved one rests.

When decorations are banned, these traditions are disrupted.
A small act of love and remembrance becomes another source of pain.

Families deserve compassion, not rigid enforcement.
We deserve the dignity of honoring our loved ones on the days that matter most to us — not only on the three dates chosen by cemetery policy.

We are asking the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and San Fernando Mission Cemetery to expand their permitted decoration dates to include  Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, birthdays, and death anniversaries.

These days matter.
Our loved ones mattered.
Honoring them should never be restricted to three dates on a calendar.

We urge you to sign and share this petition so grieving families can receive a more compassionate, human response — one that recognizes the emotional weight of these holidays and respects the ways we continue to love those we’ve lost.