Grieving Houston mom still waiting for her 1-year-old daughter's headstone

HOUSTON - Grieving families are finding themselves with even more heartbreak, as headstones are still backordered since the start of the pandemic. One Houston mom is finding out the hard way.

After losing her 1-year-old daughter, Joshulyn Forbes ordered a headstone for her little angel, which she says was supposed to arrive in May. It's now November and she still doesn't have it.

"I would have loved to have her here and that's the last thing that I can do for her is just to honor her and have somewhere to lay flowers," says this mom in mourning while wiping away tears.

Grieving the loss of her baby girl, 18-month-old Hope who was a twin and passed away in March, Forbes immediately wanted to secure a special gravestone.

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"I ordered a headstone, and they quoted six to nine weeks, but he said sometimes they come in, in four weeks," Forbes explains but the deadline for little Hope's headstone to arrive has come and gone.

"When we showed back up in May, and we're like hey guys what's the update?  What's the timeline? They can't find the order. That tells me it was never placed," the grieving mother adds. 

A week ago, a headstone that's the wrong color arrived.

"I chose a black setting, a black foundation color, and what we got was a very hot pink color," says Forbes.

The person I spoke with at the cemetery blames granite shortages for the delay.

To add insight, I spoke with Chris Kubas with the Elberton Granite Association, which doesn't have anything to do with the cemetery or the Forbes' family order. Kubas confirms the granite industry is still getting caught up to pre-pandemic manufacturing and delivery times, causing months of backlogs for granite gravestones.

"It's been a mess. It's been disappointing. I have not received a callback. I've left numerous voicemails and have yet to receive a call back from the cemetery. Now they have called my sister," Forbes explains.

The cemetery representative told her sister and me, they are correcting the headstone.

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This mom in mourning says she expected much better communication and more respect at a time like this. "It has been upsetting from the start when the cemetery worker introduced himself as ‘an N-Word from Fifth Ward’. We were very offended. You would think in that line of business there would be a little bit more care, a little bit more sympathy, a little bit more empathy for families who are on this journey," says Forbes.

The Better Business Bureau has one other complaint against this cemetery from 2021 for the same issue, months going by without the family receiving the headstone they paid for. 

When I called the cemetery, I was told the owner would call me back to give a statement. As of when this report was published, I was still awaiting that phone call.