Cemetery workers prepare graves for Pulse victims

With orange spray paint, Greenwood Cemetery caretaker Owl Goingback outlined a rectangle under a century-old oak, then stepped aside as a backhoe claw plunged into the spot where Anthony Luis Laureano Disla’s body will be buried.

“I prefer to not know a lot about who I bury. It’s a lot easier that way,” said Goingback, 57, who was preparing graves at the city of Orlando’s historic cemetery Thursday for 25-year-old Laureano Disla and three other victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting.

“But I saw their pictures last night, their names, and read how one was sending a text to his mother saying ‘I’m going to die,’’’ he said. “You don’t mind [burying] someone who’s 90 years old. They’ve lived their life. But all of these people, they were young.”

The city created a special space for Pulse victims in its 100-acre cemetery, where many of Orlando’s most famous figures rest among the nearly 70,000 plots.

It plans to establish a memorial to the 49 victims at the northern edge of the cemetery, visible from Anderson Street.

“For victims who aren’t buried here, it will give their friends a place to come and visit,” Greenwood Cemetery sexton Don Price said. “If they don’t want to come into the cemetery, they can just drive by.”

Orlando is waiving its usual $1,500 fee for a cemetery plot and $850 in other burial fees. It also arranged for central Florida florists to donate flowers to decorate the graveside and for limousines to provide rides for the victim’s families.

The families of Cory James Connell, 21; Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25; and Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21, also accepted the city offer of free burials, all scheduled for Saturday.

Juan de Leon, 33, hopped down from the backhoe to inspect a grave.

He pointed out to co-worker Richard Ossorio that a few oak roots needed to be trimmed from the side of the hole.

De Leon said he didn’t know any Pulse victims, but his wife knew two. She worked with both at Universal Studios.

“It’s tough to deal with sorrow every day and, now with this tragedy happening, it makes it even harder,” he said.

De Leon and Ossorio, 34, also dug graves for Pulse victims this week at Rose Hill Cemetery in Kissimmee and Oak Hill Cemetery in Clermont.

“It’s part of life, everybody’s got to pass,” said Ossorio, peeking out of the hole. “Somebody’s got to do it.”

Many Pulse victims will not be interred in central Florida graveyards, Price said. Some families are taking their sons or daughters back to Puerto Rico, and others to Mexico.

Price, who has worked in the graveyard for 15 years, said services for Pulse victims may pose a challenge.

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“We don’t know how many cars to expect, how many non-family members are going to show up because they feel somehow tied to this, or whether there will be protesters or room enough for those people who want to pay respects,” he said.

The city has erected a black fence along Anderson Street and will hang U.S. and rainbow flags from the top. Cemetery workers also plan to park service vans and other city vehicles along a chain link fence to obstruct street views of the services.

“I don’t want the families to feel like they’re in a fishbowl,” he said.

When not preparing graves, cemetery worker Goingback writes scary stories, winning top honors in 1996 from the Horror Writers Assn. He describes his books as “escape horror.”

“I don’t write about serial killers, child molesters, mass murderers ... I write about big hairy monsters that eat people,” he said.

Then he looked at the graves.

“What scares me is watching the news,” he said.

shudak@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6361.

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