Hundreds of relatives and friends of those buried or interred at Grand View Memorial Park cemetery are probably still sharing memories of their visit to the cemetery on a recent Sunday - the first time the gates were open to the public in about nine months.

Grand View is within the borders of Glendale, but its closure and ongoing problems have affected folks across the Southland and beyond. At this point, the future of Grand View is very uncertain.

After a light morning rain, the sun broke through cloudy skies just as I arrived at Grand View shortly before it opened at noon on March 30. Despite the unpredictable weather, a crowd was huddled at the gates and traffic was bumper-to-bumper along the 1300 block of Glenwood Road.

This was my first visit to the beleaguered Grand View, which originally opened way back in 1884.

In the fall of 2005, a state inspector discovered the remains of four thousand people improperly stored at Grand View. Some of the remains dated back to the 1930s.

Seven months later, the owner shut down the cemetery reportedly due to financial difficulties. The city of Glendale opened Grand View for limited visits, but closed it down again in June 2007.

Also, Grand View has been hit with a slew of lawsuits from a number of families.

I parked and walked into the cemetery with 84-year-old Dorothy Dery and her son, Michael Dery. Dorothy, a long-time Glendale resident and an amateur photographer, snapped my picture before I could point my camera at her.

Dorothy has at least five relatives laid to rest at Grand View. She was eager and anxious to get inside. I had to quicken my steps to keep up with Dorothy, who walked with a cane.

A troop of volunteers was on hand to assist the reported 600 to 700 people who showed up. Vehicles were allowed to drive through the gates and onto the cemetery roads.

I was surprised at how many people brought gardening equipment, trash bags, bottled water and cleaning rags along with brightly colored flowers and potted plants.

Some of the trees on the cemetery grounds had been removed leaving only the stumps. The high grass had been mowed down somewhat. Nevertheless, many of the gravesites were still hidden beneath the thick turf.

I saw quite a few visitors bent over or on their knees using their hands to pull up grass and weeds from the flat headstones. Others utilized small tools or shovels to clear away debris from around the grave markers.

When I met Stephanie Landis of Huntington Beach, she was searching for the headstones of her great uncle and great grandmother with a map she picked up at the front gate from attorney Paul Ayers, who represents some of the relatives.

As she tidied up the gravesites, Landis complained about the poor condition and operation of Grand View, saying it had "been going on for years like this." Landis is convinced that given the chance "most families" would come in and really clean up the cemetery grounds "for free."

Besides the plaintiff lawsuits and management troubles, Grand View operator Moshe Goldsman has to find a buyer for the cemetery under the terms of a settlement reached on Sept. 27, 2007, with the California Department of Consumer Affairs.

A branch of the DCA - the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau - handles the licensing and regulation of the state's funeral and cemetery industries. It was an investigator from that bureau that discovered the mishandling of remains and other violations of state law at Grand View in 2005.

As part of the settlement, Goldsman was put on three years of probation and ordered to sell Grand View. On Thursday, April 10, I got an update from DCA spokesman Kevin Flanagan who states, "... (Goldsman) is still on probation and the property has not been sold..."

According to Flanagan, the department is hopeful that a suitable buyer can be found and Grand View is able to resume normal operations.

Still, he admits right now, "... hard to say what the future holds ..." for Grand View and there are "... a lot of issues" to be resolved.