GRIEVING mother Carol Stanley was mortified when she learned of a mistake made at her son's funeral.
Kevin Stanley was buried on March 10 in the Wagin Cemetery after losing a 14-month battle with cancer.
Four months later, Ms Stanley learned that her son had been buried in a grave site reserved for someone else.
The plot of land had been reserved by a Wagin woman, who did not wish to be named.
The woman was supposed to buried alongside her partner, who had already passed away.
She said she discovered the mistake while tending to the site and found Kevin Stanley's grave in its place.
Ms Stanley said she was a mess when she heard the news.
"I cannot imagine how that must have felt," she said.
The woman who had reserved the site approached the Shire of Wagin and was reimbursed the money paid for the plot next to her partner.
Ms Stanley felt left out of the loop after hearing about the blunder around town, rather than directly from the shire.
That was what upset her the most, she said
"It was within this woman's rights to demand my son's body was dug up and shifted, but she didn't and for that I am sincerely grateful," she said.
"I don't know if I could have endured that."
The woman said she and her family had no plan to exhume Ms Stanley's son.
"Once a person has been buried they should stay buried," the woman said.
"It was no one's fault, people make mistakes."
Ms Stanley did not feel the same and said the mistake should never have happened.
Shire chief executive officer Peter Webster was approached about the mistake by the Wagin woman and said several options were considered.
"It was never going to come to the point of exhuming Kevin Stanley's body," Mr Webster said.
"No one wanted that, so it wasn't an option."
Ms Stanley wants to make sure this never happens again.
"It may have been a one-off mistake and it may never happen again, but I want to draw attention to my experience and make sure it never does happen again," she said.
