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Mother begs people to stop vandalizing roadside memorial

Mother begs people to stop vandalizing roadside memorial

A Durham Bridge woman is begging people to stop tampering with the memorial to her son's death.

Brenda Fletcher lost her 23-year-old son Nicholas in an accident last December on Route 8 near Penniac.

He was a passenger in the rear of a car that collided with a tractor trailer.

Two other people in the car were also killed, another 23-year-old man and a mother of four, who was 41. The woman's 19-year-old daughter was also in the car and survived.

Fletcher says Nicholas, her youngest son, was on his way home that night after going out to help a friend. He lived at home and helped her look after her husband, who is disabled.

"He meant the world to me," she said.

Shortly after the accident Fletcher and some family friends began setting up a memorial to her son and the other two victims.

They painted large rocks across from the accident scene to let others know where it happened and as a tribute.

They used her dead son's favourite colours — red, yellow and green — and a peace sign, a heart and a happy face to represent her son's favourite expression: peace, love and happiness.

When the ground thawed in the spring, they installed a cross with a plaque containing the three victims' names.

Fletcher says it's all she has to remember Nicholas. There's no gravesite.

He was cremated and she and her husband keep his ashes at home.

"We have him at home," Fletcher said.

"His dad's unable to go to visit and see him. So we kept him with his dad for the time being. That's where he was trying to go, just to get home. So we brought him the rest of the way. That's all we have."

Soon after the memorial went up unknown vandals went to work. First they repainted the rocks with black paint. Then they painted them red, white and blue.

Next came target signs and bull's eyes. Fletcher said each time they painted the site, someone or some group of people would paint over the rocks.

It's now happened about 20 times.

At one point, Fletcher and her family painted Rest in Peace on the rocks to let people know the significance of the site. That didn't stop the vandalism.

She can't help but wonder why anyone would want to spoil the memory of her son who such a "kind, caring boy" and the others who died that night.

"It's heartbreaking," she said.

"My mom taught me since I was a little girl that when you see crosses on the road, you pay respect to those people. You also understand that the road might not be safe, to be careful. It's a reminder to people that people lost their lives there so drive carefully."

Now Fletcher said she is turning to the internet to find help.

She's posting messages on Kijiji and Facebook about what is happening and she's offering rewards to anyone who can help her put a stop to it.