Community rebuilds after cemetery desecration
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On a spring evening, St. Columba Cemetery near Iona is a quiet place. A car passes, a few people visit, but mostly the only sounds are the songs of birds and the wash of the wind. The cemetery visitors this evening have come mostly to spruce up a headstone or two with flowers or other decorations for Memorial Day.
"I come out here to talk with Mom and going to tell her that her grandson is graduating this Friday and kind of just touch base," says Jo Altman.
For Altman, the gentle sounds of an evening in a small graveyard are comforting and normal. That peace and quiet was shattered last October when vandals toppled a dozen grave markers.
"I thought it was horrible, for anybody to do this," says Altman. "I mean this is your final resting place. You're supposed to be in peace. Everyday you go out into this world and you struggle with this and this and everything else that's going on. But when you're here it's sacred, it's a special place."
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Like many people with ties to the Iona cemetery, Jo Altman lives somewhere else. In her case it's the town of Adrian, about a half hour away. Still she reacted just as strongly as Iona residents did when word of the vandalism spread. Cemetery caretaker Sylvan Gaul says that reaction was typical.
"Devastated. The question was 'Why?'"
"We had a response from all over. We had people that would send checks. Just to help out with putting things back together again," says Gaul.
Gaul says the public contributed more than $5,000 to fix the damage. Some of the money came anonymously. He reads from a letter mailed in Rochester.
"I am a 1994 convert and this is my means of saying thank you to God. I hope the people will be generous and order will be restored. May you and yours enjoy a happy and holy holidays. Love and prayers, Anonymous. Merry Christmas," reads Gaul.
Most of the aid came from people with some sort of connection to the cemetery. Joan Risacher of Brighton, Michigan has more than a dozen relatives buried there. Among them were her mother and father, her husband and two children. She remembers how she felt when she heard the news of the vandalism.
"Devastated. The question was 'Why?'" says Risacher. "Why would somebody do this? Somebody is damaging it and nobody can fight back because these people are all dead."
One person, Dan Wilson, has pleaded guilty to the vandalism and will be sentenced in June. He declined an interview request. Two other people, Daniel Kittredge and an unnamed juvenile, are awaiting trial. Kittredge is already in prison for crimes unrelated to the cemetery vandalism.
Most of the damage has been fixed. On one grave marker though a hand from a statue lies broken. It was re-attached last fall, but the glue failed to hold.
At another gravesite flags signal where a new stone marker will be installed. Cemetery caretaker Sylvan Gaul says considering what happened, the place looks ready for Memorial Day.
"We'll have people coming out all weekend long to put flowers out and everything like that," says Gaul. "Our new priest always wants to celebrate mass out here. And then we have the VFW they have their ceremonies out here which draws quit a few people for this area, I think."
The sounds of voices, prayer, maybe a rifle salute and taps will all be part of the Memorial Day services. It's a respectful interruption in the normal life of the cemetery. When it's over and the people have gone home, a long lasting quiet will settle over the place.
