DRIVING past Annotto Bay Cemetery in St Mary, a peculiar sight catches your eye: life-size cut-outs of the deceased standing guard over their graves — a popular trend that is said to both help in locating burial sites as well as keep the memories of loved ones alive.

An employee from Exodus Funeral Service, who gave his name as Brother Teddy, said the funeral home has, over the past three to four years, installed these cut-outs in a bid to make visiting graves easier and more meaningful for family members.

“On the candlelight night, that is the major night when they have that picture pose up in the yard, but now after the person is buried we normally just have that picture on top of the grave to keep the memories of the person that died alive,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“It’s very different because, as you can see, if you pass on the road and just glance, you can see your loved one. Anywhere they are, you can see them,” he added.

Brother Teddy said with these cut-outs on display, no longer will family members have to struggle to locate a loved one’s grave in the tightly packed and seemingly disorganised burial site.

When the Sunday Observer visited the burial ground last Wednesday, a “set up” was underway at the front of the premises. Towards the back, graves lay close together, leaving little room to manoeuvre the space. Headstones were non-existent or had been eroded by the elements, and cardboard cut-outs of the deceased were the only thing that brought colour and life to the sombre grounds, whispering tales of love and lives well lived.

Brother Teddy shared that hundreds of these cut-outs are placed in Highgate, St Mary, and Portland cemeteries, and in St Catherine. However, he said the practice is most common at Annotto Bay Cemetery.

The process, he said, is simple, with relatives selecting a photo from a memorable time, or one which they think represents the best version of their loved ones. The picture is then transformed into a standing, 2D cut-out, and cemented to the grave after the burial.

“Whether you want the standing one or the half-size, you choose and then we develop that picture into the cut-out. When we put it up, we put steel behind it so that it doesn’t blow down or break,” Brother Teddy explained.

Smiling brightly as he stared at the cardboard cut-out of his deceased mother, Sheldon, a resident in the area, said he was more than happy to honour the memory of his mother in this fashion.

“It would feel like she still here [in] some way, like her memory just lives on same way,” he told the Observer.

“It’s unique, once you come you can see it. Every time I come here I have to go down here — and me cyaan go the wrong grave. A right through the storm that [cut-out] go. On a regular basis I can come and take pictures with my mother still,” said Sheldon, smiling as he posed for a picture next to the cut-out of his mother.

“Even though she is gone, me can still see her face, come and take a picture same way. We come and we do TikTok videos same way, so it’s like she nuh gone. We know that she is gone but it keeps the memory alive. Pictures have a lot of meaning and we love to see it,” he said.

Another resident, Megil Young, said he got the cut-out for the mother of his children who died two months ago. On visits to the cemetery with his children, he said they are able to still see their mother, even though she passed, giving them some level of comfort.

“It’s just to know that a she this; we can see her picture and remember her same way. Is my babymother. From me see it, me a guh feel a way to know say your loved one deh here suh, but at least we can still see her face,” said Young.

“Some of the times people are passing on the roadside and them stop, reverse, and come inna the cemetery and say, ‘This man did dead? This woman was dead? And they just start crying because they didn’t know that the person was dead — only to be passing the cemetery, see the photograph, and stop and come.

“Some of the times I come here, sit down, and just look at my babymother and talk to her and say, ‘Boy, me sad seh you gone,’ but when me see her picture it feels like a she me really a talk to,” he added.