A Bay of Plenty mum has been left horrified after a plaque on a rock near Leisure Island commemorating her dead twins was stolen.
Gemma-Elaine Hamblin revealed the senseless act of vandalism the Mount Maunganui Noticeboard Facebook page earlier this week.
Speaking to SunLive, Gemma says although she now lives in Rotorua, she always goes to her twins' memorial when she's visiting Tauranga.
'About three weeks ago I just had gut feeling this particular day, when I was heading there. When I arrived and saw both the plaque and the stone was gone. I was mortified.”
The plaque commemorates the twins, who were miscarried at nearly 12 weeks on November 19, 2015. The stone is from the beach where their father is from.
'They were cemented down with Knead it putty. The stone stayed there the whole time, but some teddies were taken not longer after they were placed there. So I thought a plaque was better – it was flat, it had their names, it had more meaning. But that's been pried off with some force,” says Gemma.
The teddies that were stolen previously.
'The thing I'm struggling with the most is that even though it's a public place, we thought people would be respectful of that.”
She says it was the one place she could go to remember her twins.
Gemma says the feedback from people on Facebook has been supportive, but all she wants now is the stone back.
5 comments
Mmm...
Posted on 23-02-2017 08:01 | By maildrop
Whilst the miscarriage is sad for her and her family, they have no right to build a memorial in a public place. Where will it end? Can everyone do it? Grief is private. There are places where you can purchase a plot to put a memorial so you can visit it.
Sweetheart
Posted on 23-02-2017 08:58 | By overit
there are mean and unkind people amongst us. This must be gut wrenching.
Time and place
Posted on 23-02-2017 10:31 | By Reefer
It is a despicable act to desecrate any sort of memorial and I feel for the family involved. However, it should never have been put in a public reserve, firstly because it's not the right place for it; and also the sort of people who tend to hang around there are unfortunately, likely to mess with your stuff. Plus, if every family who has been through the trauma of miscarriages, as we also have, put up memorials on public reserves, they'd be everywhere. Grieving is in the heart, keep it there. We are thinking of you.
sad
Posted on 23-02-2017 12:33 | By gingerpussy
some people just have no conscience at all. Maybe you could put a memorial at your house where it will be safe....
My dad died last year.
Posted on 23-02-2017 21:15 | By Tgaboy
Can I have his headstone placed on the Mount? I'm sorry for this woman's sad loss but it seems a bit clueless to be lamenting a desecrated memorial when she had zero right to place it there in the first instance.
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