Vandals topple tombstones in St. George - Apr. 30, 2010
BY BARB RAYNER
barbrayn@nbnet.nb.ca
ST. GEORGE – When Mary Beaudry visited her son’s grave Monday she was upset to find his tombstone had been knocked over – and six others nearby had also been toppled.
“It was upsetting. I still have not got over it. My brother and I went up together and I thought he had gone up the wrong road because it was bare-looking then I thought - oh my goodness Kevin’s stone is flat.”
Her son Kevin died three years ago in September. He had been living in Nova Scotia for seven years after retiring from 20 years in the military and she brought him back to St. George to be buried.
“It is too bad that people do things like that. What pleasure they get out of it I don’t know.”
Sgt. Greg MacAvoy of District 1 RCMP said the incident is being investigated and they hope someone will come forward with some information that will help them identify who is responsible for the damage. He said they think it occurred some time over the weekend.
“It is such a senseless act of vandalism in, of all places, a cemetery. It hurts the people who are still living. It shows such disrespect and it is really inconsiderate to the families of these people.”
Dan Gillmor, who is chair of the St. George Rural Cemetery Board, said he is not able to put the tombstones to rights himself but Smet Monuments has very kindly said they will re-erect them although they cannot do it right away.
“I was working there all day Saturday with a work crew and Mary (Beaudry) was there to look at her lot on Monday so we assume it happened some time between Saturday and Monday because it was not noticed by the work party on Saturday.”
He said he did not think any of the tombstones had been damaged and look as if they have just been knocked over.
Beaudry, however, said there was a heavy metal cross on her son’s grave and until they lift the stone she is not sure how badly it has been damaged.
“They need to be set back on the bases and you probably need heavy equipment to do it because the stones are quite heavy,” Gillmor said, although he conceded “two strong men might be able to lift them.”
“I don’t have the workforce there to do it and I can hardly prevail upon the town. It is much the same thing as happened in Saint John over the weekend.”
He was referring to an incident at St Joseph’s Cemetery in Saint John where at least 400 tombstones were knocked over some time between Saturday evening and Sunday morning.
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