Mother laments damage at daughter’s gravesite
A Calgary mother is distraught over damage around her daughter’s gravesite at a city cemetery.
Twice in the past year, personal items placed around her child’s gravestone have been damaged or gone missing at the Storybook Gardens in Queen’s Park Cemetery.
The heads of a few stuffed animals have been ripped off and other mementoes have gone missing from the site, which is reserved for deceased children. In another instance, flowers appeared to be shredded.
“I just want it to stop. It’s heartbreaking,” said the mother, who did not want to be named.
She worries the destruction could escalate to damaged headstones.
The city, however, says the incidents are the result of Mother Nature — not vandals. “These items, especially in the spring, they’re covered in snow. They’re blown from the graves,” said cemetery superintendent Gary Daudlin, who examined photos taken at the site.
“Unfortunately, these items become nesting materials for some of the animals that live in the cemetery. What you see is the result of that. It isn’t something that is vandalism in the cemetery.”
Sometimes, wildlife will drag items away from the graves, he added.
But the mother insists that humans — not animals or wind — are responsible for the damage.
“Their heads were ripped off and the stuffing gone. They were posed around and sitting. They were de-limbed,” she said.
“You can tell it wasn’t just the wind. I was so disgusted.”
She said she raised her concerns with a staff member at the cemetery who did not seem surprised.
“She basically admitted that they know that that particular section seems to attract vandals and there’s nothing they can do,” said the mother.
Daudlin said the cemetery has a lot of families that visit, and sometimes children will pick up teddy bears and other items. When the mementoes are found elsewhere, staff place the items in a common area for the families to pick up when they return.
He said the city receives two or three complaints of vandalism at the cemeteries in a year and there has been no recent increase. There have been no recent reports of destruction at Storybook Gardens.
“If there is vandalism in the cemetery we are aware of it. Our guys are in the cemetery every day. We are maintaining the cemetery,” he said.
The mother says she constantly worries about her daughter’s gravesite.
“You just feel really violated because they’re in there and they’re touching her stuff.
“It just feels like they’re disrespecting her.”