Renà Hankins Lantrip’s gravesite has been a source of refuge for her daughter, Harleigh Portante.

Portante has left several reminders of her bond with her mother: among them a picture in a stone frame with the phrase “not a day goes by you are not missed,” a blown-up photo of a smiling Lantrip imposed on a pink flag above the words “until I see you again,” and a “Best Mom Ever” mug.

On Easter, a box of Peeps, a pink basket and colored eggs were left at Lantrip’s final resting place.

But when Portante stopped by Southern Heritage Cemetery in Pelham on Monday, many of those reminders were no longer there.

The cemetery conducted “a complete cemetery clean up” aimed at removing keepsakes that “present a public safety issue for our grounds crews,” an effort mourners said was poorly communicated on Southern Heritage’s Facebook page and a sign at the cemetery’s entrance.

On Friday, the cemetery posted this message:

“Our commitment is to provide a tranquil place for our client families who come to our cemeteries to pay respect to their loved ones. Over time, items that have been left behind have encroached on the final resting places of other people and present a safety issue for our grounds crews. No personal mementoes were discarded; they have been collected and saved for families to pick up behind the mausoleum. Per our policy, trinkets that are left behind should be able to fit in vases at a loved one’s location of internment out of respect for the more than 7,000 people whose final resting place is Southern Heritage Cemetery.”

But several people whose relatives are buried at the Pelham cemetery who spoke to AL.com said they did not receive any formal notice that graveside items would be removed. They said they only learned that their mementos were taken off the graves and placed on the floor of a mausoleum through word of mouth.

“Disgraceful. Traumatizing. Heartless. As if we aren’t grieving enough,” Portante said. “Southern Heritage Cemetery has taken away so many people’s safe havens to come and be with their loved ones at their final resting place.”

Her “I Love You Mom” stone sign and “Best Mom Ever” mug were not among the hundreds of items on the ground and were unaccounted for when Portante visited the cemetery, she said.

Angry messages have been left on Southern Heritage’s Facebook page from customers who said they were blindsided by the decision. Others said they were dumbfounded how even small mementos that did not interfere with groundskeepers were removed.

“This action is absolutely shameful and you all are going to pay dearly in the public relations arena,” wrote Henry A. Long III.

“I’m recommending to my family that they sell our plots immediately. I want my loved ones to rest in a place where personal freedom of expression is honored, and a change of policy is handled with dignity, grace, and above all, reasonable FOREWARNING. Whomever is responsible for this should fired, because it was handled miserably and disrespectfully. Absolutely disgusting.”

The cemetery referred AL.com to the corporate communications arm of its owner, Service Corporation International, but a spokesman did not immediately have a comment.

Dennis Martin, whose mother-in-law and brother-in-law are buried at Southern Heritage, visited the cemetery on Sunday after his daughter’s brother-in-law told him about the missing items.

“To me, the issue of removing the items isn’t as bad as the lack of communication with the next of kin,” he told AL.com. “I think how it was handled was the worst thing. Some people don’t get to the cemetery very often so just posting a sign is not very good communication.”

Martin said two small bird statues on his mother-in-law’s headstone were placed there nine years ago and the Crimson Tide elephant that adorned his brother’s gravestone was there “for a couple of decades.”

Martin took photos of everyone’s items on the grass and posted the pictures to Facebook, where his post has been shared nearly 500 times as of early Monday evening.

“They did post a sign at the entrance saying they were doing a cemetery cleaning, but no advanced warning as far as I know. If you happened to visit the cemetery you might see the sign, but it didn’t say what was done with the stuff or how to retrieve it if it wasn’t removed by the families,” he said.

Felicia Vizzina Brewer’s father, Santo Anthony Vizzina, is also buried at Southern Heritage.

Vizzina’s grave has been awaiting a headstone since his death in March 2023. In its place was a handmade marker and a clay flower plot with the signatures and handprints of his seven grandchildren.

The marker was removed from the grave as part of the “cleanup,” Brewer said, and a cross affixed to the marker was broken at the base.

“When I asked the people in the office for a copy of the rules and regulations on the cemetery, which they say have been always in place, my issue is they let this go on for over a year in our case, and I know there was more stuff there before we got there,” Vizzina told AL.com. “So why all of a sudden decide to enforce it and be disrespectful in this manner?”