Dry Creek, LA (KPLC) - A southwest Louisiana mother said she was doing her best to honor her daughter by decorating her gravesite, only to find part of it was tossed out by the cemetery.

Alyssa Young was just 13 years old when she died in 2018. Marble Fireplace

Dry Creek mother finds mailbox missing from daughter’s grave site

“She was just happy, just always happy,” Alyssa’s mother Danielle Young said.

Young has decorated her gravesite at the Cherry Grove Cemetery in Dry Creek since she laid her daughter to rest. That included a hand painted mailbox, where people could write a note to Alyssa, what Young calls “letters to heaven.”

“I always open her mailbox and there’s notes so it does my heart good to know that her friends are still there, her friends are still going to see her,” Young said.

Last week, Young claimed she found the mailbox with letters inside lying next to the trash.

“They didn’t have to touch it, they could have contacted me, they could’ve let me know ‘hey this doesn’t work, we don’t like this out here,’” Young said.

Signage at the cemetery said decorations must be of biblical nature and within the designated plot.

“There was no contact made at all. I’m not hard to find. They didn’t even reach out they just threw it away,” Young said.

Young believes the angel wing design and placement of the mailbox does not violate any of the guidelines.

“The sign was there but the mailbox did have angel wings on it and things that referenced biblical things and it was in our spot,” Young said.

When Young reached out to the Cemetery Association for an explanation, she said she was told the mailbox didn’t meet the guidelines.

Young also said the board will not meet with her until April.

When 7News contacted the president of the Cemetery Association Joey Andrews, he reiterated the guidelines and made no further comment.

Family member Abbey Lopez who also has a child buried at Cherry Grove said decorating their daughters’ graves is all these moms have left.

“Those are our girls and we go out there all the time for every holiday. We decorate and put stuff up for Easter and for Christmas, that’s what we do, that’s how we show our love for our girls because we can’t do it in any other way,” Lopez said.