Memorial vandalism doesn't hurt the dead, only innocent survivors

To the Editor:

Anyone who has ever suddenly lost a loved one in a vehicle accident can understand the devastation and the gut-wrenching sense of loss that my family has had to endure.

I lost my precious father; my mother lost her mate. I had to tell two elderly people that they had just lost their son, and perhaps the saddest above all - six children lost their dear grandpa.

Instantly he was gone, and what we have left is a rusting steel cross along the side of the road. We didn't get the privilege of a private memorial in a cemetery. We get to publicly mourn alongside Highway 93 as traffic passes. And we have all had to come to accept this.

I don't know if someone has a vendetta against my father or my family, but my father's cross has been the target of vandalism.

I can't even express how sick and wrong and extremely disrespectful this is.

It has made me furious and made me desperate to seek justice, but I find that it is more important to me that this person must please be stopped.

I don't care who you are, just please stop.

You are not hurting my father; you are hurting everyone who is left. You are hurting little girls who painstakingly work to make Grandpa's cross look pretty. They don't understand why this keeps happening.

If you had hatred toward my father, then that is your business, but it is time to stop hurting innocent people.

April J. Bowe