Marian May, of Marietta, Ga., fell into the grave of Jean Murphy Henderson in June 2004 while trying to place flowers on her casket.

She remembers the ground giving way as she stepped toward the casket and then hitting the concrete vault 6-feet below. The fall broke her hip, which she eventually had to have replaced.

“It is not much fun being down there, where it’s nice and black and you are looking up and I am saying ‘Jean, I don’t want to go with you,’” May said.

The rescue squad removed her from the grave on a backboard.

A federal judge recently cleared the case to proceed. It could go to trial next year.

In the court papers, May claims the open grave was dangerous because green carpeting, which she says appeared to be a good place to step, was the only material covering its opening. She also says the side of the grave might have been crumbling beneath the carpeting.

She said the town and the funeral home are responsible because they didn’t make the grave safe for the service, didn’t dig it to the proper size, didn’t cover the opening with plywood and failed to warn people about the danger.

She and her husband William May, 92, who claims the accident has cost him the affection of his wife, are suing for more than $75,000.

The town denied the claims in court papers filed in response to the lawsuit.

A lawyer for Highlands said the town didn’t know about dangerous conditions at the graveside and that it is not responsible for making the area near a grave safe. The town’s lawyer also said May didn’t heed warnings from funeral home officials to stay away from the graveside.

Bryant Funeral Home also denied it was responsible for the accident in court papers and said funeral home workers warned May to stay away from the graveside.

May, who says she’s not as old as her husband “but trying hard to get there,” realizes how strange her story sounds to others. She said her doctor couldn’t believe it actually happened – at first.

“Now he says ‘You know, I go to cocktail parties and when it starts getting dull I say let me tell you about the woman who fell in a grave,’” May said.