I’ll never forget the October day in 2013 when my husband and I pulled into the entrance of Shiloh National Military Park in Tennessee and were blocked by a state trooper and his vehicle. We were told that the entire park, including the historic veterans cemetery where my father is buried, was closed due to the ongoing government shutdown — a possibility that had simply never occurred to me when I made plans for the visit. I burst into tears (I couldn’t help it) and eventually the trooper allowed us pass, making us promise that we’d go directly to the grave and back.
Before 2013, I’d never felt the direct impact of our government’s inability to reach across party lines and agree on pressing issues like budgets or borders or benefits. Before I was denied the simple right to visit my father’s final resting place, the fact that millions of people were laid off, working without pay, or denied government services never crossed my (selfish) mind.
As of this writing, we’re all suffering through the federal government’s 21st shutdown since 1977, in all sorts of different ways. I now know better than to plan a visit to my parents’ grave (my mother joined my father there in early August) until the wheels of legislation start to crank up again. Some national parks like Shiloh will be minimally staffed or “stripped to the bone, including no trash collection, restrooms, road or walkway maintenance or visitor information.”
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) website, burials will continue at veterans cemeteries throughout the shutdown — even, I suppose, at those 13 veterans cemeteries that fall under the purview of the National Park Service, although those burials are few and far between these days. But, as the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) shared on October 1, other veterans services will be limited — and some of those affect deathcare.
VA regional benefits offices will be closed — meaning your local VA contacts won’t be there to help your or veterans’ families with questions and/or services. The grounds at VA national cemeteries will not be maintained, and no headstones will be permanently placed, although applications for headstones and markers will be processed — unlike applications for pre-need burial, which will not. Lastly, some support hotlines—including the National Cemetery Applicant Assistance hotline—will cease operations.
My parents’ new headstone (they’re adding my mother’s information to the back of my dad’s marker) was ordered from the VA over a month ago, and I’ll bet that the position of the one engraver at the VA Cemetery Administration who handles markers for the National Park Service cemeteries is considered negligible (I promise … there is only the one guy!) . And even if he’s one of the lucky ones who isn’t furloughed, the marker would not be placed until the shutdown ends. It’s a minor inconvenience for me, and I can definitely wait, but it makes me realize that so many others, especially federal employees and beneficiaries of government services, are actually suffering major consequences.
