‘I feel so sad for the people lying there’
A mother screamed in horror when she found the plaque of her daughter’s grave missing.
Six years later Pat Anderson wants to prevent the same thing happening to other families who find their loved ones lying in unmarked graves in Porirua’s Whenua Tapu Cemetery.
Anderson visited the grave of her daughter Karyn Knapman - killed in a road accident 30 years ago - to find the plaque missing. It was one of 44 stolen for scrap metal in 2010, she said.
‘‘I couldn’t believe it when I saw it was gone - it was like she had been made a victim for the second time.’’
Porirua City Council owns the cemetery and tried to contact Anderson after the theft, but she had moved away from the area and changed her phone number.
She quickly organised another plaque but there were about six other graves that never had theirs replaced and were still unmarked.
‘‘I feel for the families who may not know what happened, just like I didn’t know, and I feel so sad for the people lying there.
‘‘I think that perhaps the council should help out by organising plaques as a matter of decency. They’ve been left for so long.’’
Insurance on headstones is the responsibility of the families, council parks manager Olivia Dovey said.
If families could be contacted they would be told of stolen plaques and council kept a list outlining when and from which plot plaques had been stolen.
‘‘The council doesn’t replace plaques, but had a good relationship with monumental masons who agreed to install replacement plaques at a discounted rate.’’
Wellington, Hutt and Kapiti councils didn’t insure the headstones or plaques but taking out insurance might not as be as simple as adding it your contents policy.
Tim Grafton, chief executive of the Insurance Council, said most insurers don’t provide cover for anything installed in a councilowned cemetery as it wouldn’t be at the situation of risk/property address nor temporarily removed to another location.
‘‘However, people should check with their insurer as we are aware that some insurers may on a case by case basis consider cover for an elaborate headstone.’’
Maggie Edwards of Consumer NZ said a specialist insurance broker may insure headstones but consumers had to consider whether the cost outweighed the benefit.