Charlottetown firefighters clean monument for fallen brother
Angela Walker | CBC News | Posted: July 14, 2016 7:00 PM | Last Updated: July 14, 2016
'It's a labour of love, I guess'
Some Charlottetown firefighters have been putting in some time and elbow grease to clean up the monument of a firefighter who died more than a hundred years ago.
We cleaned it and scrubbed it all down. We dug out and put a new flower bed in and a few plants around it. - Joe MacKinnon
Lt. Theo J. Farquharson, 35, passed away on Sept. 1, 1890 from injuries he sustained fighting a fire the day before.
A monument was erected in honour of his bravery in the People's Cemetery in Charlottetown, but at some point it fell into disrepair.
"It had a lot of moss and it was really hard to read the writing. You couldn't see his name," said Joe MacKinnon, a member of the Charlottetown Professional Firefighters Association.
The brotherhood
When it came to the association's attention that the monument was in need of some work, MacKinnon said, members wanted to help.
"So we went out and we cleaned it and scrubbed it all down. We dug out and put a new flower bed in and a few plants around it."
He said members wanted to show respect for their fallen brother to ensure his sacrifice would never be forgotten.
The firefighters will make this an annual clean-up.
They also plan to investigate whether there are other gravestones or monuments of firefighters that need attention.
"It's a labour of love, I guess. It comes back to the brotherhood and respect factor," added MacKinnon.
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