BY JASON THOMPSON
On June 17, Ruth Boeswald bought flowers to place on the graves of her husband and son at the Lasalle Boulevard civic cemetery.
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Morris and Chris Raymond aren?t sure whether to leave flowers for their loved ones anymore. |
When she returned on Father?s Day, June 19, the flowers were gone. She didn?t even have a chance to pay the $80 credit card bill before the flowers disappeared.
?I was very upset, who would do a thing like that?? asks Boeswald. ?Stealing from the dead.?
?I thought maybe the cemetery crew had put them away but they said they never touched it,? she said.
A couple of weeks later, Morris Raymond also visited the Lasalle cemetery only to discover the large geraniums his wife Chris had prepared had gone missing.
?Every year my wife plants geraniums in these big pots,? said Raymond. ?She buys these baby geraniums and once they?re almost fully grown we bring them (to the cemetery).?
Raymond said the flowers flanked the large family monument and were placed June 30, just three days before they were noticed missing the following Sunday.
Raymond and his wife are the caretakers of the plot and visit the cemetery several times a week for maintenance.
?I felt sorry that it had to come to this,? said Raymond. ?I felt sorry for my wife.?
?I guess somebody needed them more than we did and couldn?t afford to buy them,? Raymond recalls telling his wife when he returned home after discovering the plants disappearance.
Greater Sudbury manager of cemetery services Al Sizer said that as unfortunate as this situation is, there is very little his organization can do to keep it from happening again.
?If people are that low that they would take from a grave site there isn?t much the cemetery could do about it.?
It would be financially impossible to have round the clock security teams onsite at all 23 civic cemeteries, Sizer says, adding it would be unwarranted
as well due to the small number of incidents reported.
?Unfortunately, we don?t have staff at all of the cemeteries all the time.?
Raymond would like to see gates put up, especially at Lasalle where multiple entrances to the grounds exist, but acknowledges people would simply scale the walls and fences.
?Gates are not going stop people from stealing,? says Raymond wondering what else could be done to deter would-be flower thieves.
?I?m curious, because some of Sudbury?s finest [police] drive by on Lasalle during the course of the evening and the early hours of the morning,
wouldn?t they be able to turn into the cemetery and just show their presence that they?re there periodically??
With one pair of geraniums gone, Raymond questions whether it?s worthwhile to replace them.
?Now the wife and I are apprehensive about putting more pots there. Of course we?re going to maintain the grounds and we want to make it look
presentable for when our family members from down south come over and say, ?let?s go see Mom and Dad.?
But, he wonders is there?s any sense bringing more flowers.
?Is it a marked grave site now? Once they see there?s something available are they going to keep stealing?? Raymond questions.
?Is it going to be a waste of my time to put them there, and at a cost of course, I can?t afford that.?
While the Raymond?s may continue to place flowers for their loved ones despite the thefts, Boeswald won?t bother anymore.
?To be honest, I?m not going to put any more flowers out. I don?t have the money to have them stolen all the time.?
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