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Jeff Green | Jul 31, 2008

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See Northbrook Cemetery Hit by Vandals

It was with a heavy heart that Faye Obrien called two monument companies in Belleville on Friday morning (July 18th) to inquire about the cost of righting and remounting 88 headstones after the graveyard she has tended for 15 years had been vandalised in the middle of the previous night.

“I was sick that it had happened and had no idea what it would cost to fix, and had no idea how we were going to pay for it,” she told the News this week.

Luckily, she won’t have to worry about the cost.

This week, crews from the Campbell and the Lons Monument companies are spending a day in Northbrook, lifting, re-sealing, and placing headstones back on bases on all of the 88 damaged gravesites. And they are not charging for their time.

“I couldn’t believe it when they told me,” Obrien recalls.

The gesture by the two companies has put a positive spin on what had been an entirely negative experience for Faye Obrien, the families whose loved ones’ graves have been desecrated, and the community at large.

The perpetrators of the crime have not been found, and, as Faye O’brien puts it, “we may never know, unless somebody has a guilty conscience. It would be good for them to come forward and make amends.”

Police are still asking for people with information about the crime to call the Napanee OPP at 613-354-3369