Highway memorial destroyed by vandals, but community helps family rebuild

Kimberly Robinson was halfway finished cutting her younger sister's hair on Friday when their mother called in tears.

The roadside memorial for their aunt Ann — who died in 2017 when her minivan collided with a semi-trailer on Highway 10 — had been destroyed by vandals. Kimberly, 25, and her sister Amber Robinson, 23, looked at the photos their mother had texted them in disbelief.

"It was just hard to think that somebody could do that," Kimberly said on Sunday.

Enraged, she posted pictures of the desecrated memorial on Facebook. By then it was already close to 10 p.m., but they knew what they needed to do. The two got in the car and started driving north from Kimberly's home in Brandon, Man. to the spot near Provincial Road 353 where their aunt was killed at age 54.

"We left in kind of just a panic," Amber said. "We're a very tight-knit family, so when anything happens in our family we're always there for each other, 100 per cent, regardless of what's happening in the moment."

When they got to the site, the sisters stood next to their mother and sister-in-law, assessing the damage. The memorial sign lay on the ground, snapped in half. Rocks were scattered. Flowers were ripped into pieces.

A bird ornament, there to symbolize Ann's love for the animals, was bent and tossed on the ground. Glass jars were smashed, and a cross that had once stood tall had been yanked out of the dirt and thrown aside.

"I remember standing there, and in my head I just didn't even know what to think," Kimberly said. "Who would do something like that? Like, who would want to disgrace something that means so much to somebody else?"

The night brought back memories of what happened on that stretch of highway three years ago.

"It was the hardest day of my life thus far, the day that she died," Amber said. "And when she left, she took a piece of everyone."

On Friday night, the women worked in the dark, cold wind whipping around them, as they tried put back together what had been so badly broken.

"We couldn't get anything back into the ground, so we just had to clean it up and we took it all back so that we can redo it and make it look bigger and better," Amber said.

A community's support

By the time Kimberly checked her Facebook post again, hundreds of people had reached out to see what they could do to help. Some commented, giving suggestions on what to do next. Others sent messages of condolence and outrage. A local florist offered to donate a bouquet of silk roses to place at the new memorial site.

"It's incredible to know that even though there's someone in our community who would do such a terrible thing, there's a lot of great people in our community who are willing to right a wrong that they didn't even do," Amber said.

"I think [Ann's] heart would be full. I think she knew how much her nieces and children and her family loved her, but I think that her heart would be so incredibly full to know that the community reached out."

Kimberly said the family decided not to report the vandalism to police since it happened on public property.

On Sunday, they returned to the spot where the memorial once stood to build a new tribute to Ann, pushing the wooden cross back into the ground, arranging the flowers in a vase and bending the bird ornament back into place.

It was a day that shouldn't have happened, but one that reminded them of the mark their aunt left on the world.

"She was very caring," Amber said. "She always went out of her way to help other people."