Family furious after forced to dig loved one's grave at funeral because it wasn't ready

The family of a brain cancer victim has been left devastated after turning up to her funeral only to find her grave was yet to be dug.

Relatives of Krystina Gilbert, 33, were stunned to find an unfinished grave as they arrived at Athens Boonescreek Cemetery in Kentucky, US.

"You don't expect to pull up and, number one, see someone digging the grave. Made me sick to my stomach,' Gilbert's sister Heidi Lawson said.

Ms Gilbert's husband was so mortified he took matters into his own hands and decided to dig the hole himself before other family members also picked up a shovel and began digging, LEX 18 reported.

It was also apparent that the man who had initially begun digging the hole had been drinking with beer bottles strewn across the floor near the grave.

After three hours of digging, Ms Gilbert eventually had a proper burial.

"We just don't want anybody else to go through this. It's terrible to sit and watch your sister's coffin sitting there and family burying her. It's not right," Lawson said.

The cemetery's manager said that the behaviour was completely inappropriate and that they were actively seeking a new gravedigger.

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"I understand why they're upset. I had him set up to dig and he didn't do it right, there was a problem with it," Jerry Williams said.

The cemetery has decided to refund the family the $1,000 paid for the plot.