Mark shares tragic tale of family’s loss

City man raises safety fears about cemeteries

WHILE it’s not so hard to believe the tragedy of your little sister dying before your eyes could stay with you for life, it’s hard for Mark Hart to believe the same senseless tragedy could be repeated.

Mr Hart was a rambunctious seven-year-old who is still here today because he didn’t heed his mother’s word to follow her closely as they visited the grave of his older brother, who died at age 7.

He said his four-year-old sister Leah was a good girl and did exactly what his mother said.

But when she followed her mother past a large cross monument on that windy January day in 1964, it toppled and crushed her, instantly killing her.

He remembers running ahead and turning as he heard his sister say “look mummy, Jesus is waving at us with that cross!”

What followed was agony for the whole family.

With incredible strength his mother pulled the headstone off and rushed her to hospital, splitting through a funeral procession, hand on the car horn.

Tragically, the effort was a futile one, with doctors pronouncing her dead on arrival.

Decades went by with the family avoiding mention of the incident that ripped them apart, but, 50 years on, Mr Hart is ready to tell the story in the hopes a similar tragedy could be prevented through change or awareness.

It might sound like a freak accident, but it’s far from the first time this kind of tragedy has occurred.

The most recent (but certainly not the only) incident discovered with a quick web search was less than two years ago in Utah, USA, when a four-year-old boy died.

But the true tragedy, according to Mr Hart, is that better cemetery design and maintenance could prevent this kind of thing from happening again.

“The tombstone falling wasn’t the main reason she died,” he said.

“It was the fact that the path you walk down is so close to them.

“If the headstones were back to back, or if there were some sort of fence or support to stop them falling, they would fall on other graves, but not on people.

“I met with Mayor Paul Antonio today and he was very understanding.

“In fact, we visited Leah’s grave and he put his hand to a nearby headstone, which wobbled when he touched it.

“He said he would put it to council to see what could be done.”

PHOTO: MEGAN MASTERS SAD TALE: Mark Hart was seven-years-old when he witnessed the death of his four-year-old sister Leah, who was crushed by a falling headstone at Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery.