I recently drove from Calgary to Red Deer to visit my 90-year-old mother and on route thought I would stop to see my father’s tree at the living memorial garden (Memorial Tree Park) south of Costco along Gasoline Alley.
My mother had told me that she had to have the bench we installed removed for easier access for mowers when the park was transferred to the County of Red Deer for maintenance, but I was very surprised and saddened to see all mementos had been removed from all the trees in the park.
As a family we had put a tree ring, stones, solar light and a birdhouse up within the ring as mementos for our dad.
It took me a while to even find dad’s tree as everything had been removed, as well as all the mementos on and around every other memorial tree in the park, with the exception of the small name plates.
I was almost in tears looking around at all the trees that had personal trinkets, flowers, pictures etc, that were now all gone. My mother knew about the bench but not about everything else that was removed and she was extremely upset.
She and I are now curious what happened to our personal mementos.
When families were told they could commemorate their loved ones with a living tree, I’m sure they felt, as we did, that the park would be kept as the type on memorial it was.
It is also a park that has not been designed for family members with mobility challenges to access.
We are extremely disappointed and saddened by this.
Jill Stewart, Calgary