WATCH: Eight headstones are being used as a retaining wall in Vancouver. But as Jill Bennett reports, the story isn’t exactly what it seemed
When Rena Del Pieve Gobbi created a garden in East Vancouver, she had no idea it would be so controversial. It was built a few years ago to provide a little green space in a heavy industrial area near Commercial Dr. and Powell St., but concerns are being raised about the gravestones that surround it.
“I knew that these weren’t on someone’s grave or anything and it was obvious that they were something that the stoneyard had discarded,” says Del Pieve Gobbi of the headstones that are being used as a retaining wall.
While there is nothing illegal about using gravestones in that manner, some family members of the deceased are not happy about it.
Peggy Matheson of Campbell River says she would like to have the gravestones of her parents–Margaret and Albert Lipp–covered up or “removed completely.”
The real headstones of two of the garden markers are located at Vancouver’s Mountain View Cemetery. Manager Glen Hodges says records suggest the ones at the East Vancouver garden might be discarded copies from W.R. Chandler, a gravestone making company that is no longer in business.
Del Pieve Gobbi spoke to Matheson by phone today to explain she never meant to upset anyone.
“If people are upset about it and want me to remove it, I’ll try do that,” she says. “If people are OK with it staying here, I will definitely continue to garden it and put in fresh plants and treat it with reverence.”
The mystery of where the gravestones came from appears to be solved, but there’s another twist: one was stolen from the garden sometime in the last couple of days. It’s unclear who removed it or why.
-with files from Jill Bennett
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