For months, families in Pilgrim faced something unthinkable: gates blocking their access to the graves of loved ones. The closures caused heartache and, in one instance, created a dangerous barrier when an ambulance was needed July 4 for a medical emergency at a family cemetery. It should never have come to this.

Last week, Martin County Judge/Executive Lon Lafferty demonstrated exactly the kind of leadership that the people of this county deserve. When residents brought their concerns to the Fiscal Court in August, he listened. He promised action and followed through. By working with Pocahontas Land Corporation, the property owner, Lafferty secured an agreement to tear down the gates and restore immediate access.

In doing so, Judge Lafferty cut through confusion and conflict with a simple recognition of right and wrong. Even after it was determined that the road in question was not a county road, he refused to let that technicality become an excuse for inaction. As he said, “That determination did not change the fact that many residents were suffering from being denied the right to visit the graves of their loved ones. More needed to be done.”

This act was about people. Elderly residents like Minnie Maynard’s 78-year-old mother who had been unable to visit her own mother’s grave since Easter. Families like that of Jessica Preece, who had to haul her mother home on a side-by-side through the creek during a medical emergency because the gates prevented access by an ambulance. These are not abstract inconveniences. They are real harms inflicted on real families.

Lafferty made the right call and took the right stand. He also showed gratitude to those who helped: County Attorney Melissa Phelps, the Fiscal Court, and Pocahontas Land for being “a good corporate neighbor.”

That spirit of cooperation is how community problems should be solved.

The families who suffered through this ordeal now look forward to the relief and rights they deserve.

Let us hope it serves as a reminder that no nonprofit, no leaseholder, no organization has the authority to cut off Martin County families from their history, their loved ones or their rightful traditions of remembrance.

Judge Lafferty put it best: “Right is right—and when necessary, we will all stand together.”

In this instance, he stood tall for the people of Martin County. For that, he earned both gratitude and praise.