To the Editor:

My husband and I visit our daughter’s grave every day at St. Rose Cemetery.  We have gone every day for the past 163 days since she was taken from us at Sandy Hook School.

At Christmastime, somebody made a beautiful horse head out of evergreens so we could place at her grave.  It was beautiful, and even had Christmas ribbon for the horse’s bridle. Jessica would have loved it.  Unfortunately, it was stolen in February.  I called everybody who visits her grave, and even went to St. Rose to find out if any of the groundskeepers had taken it (since it was turning brown).  Nobody knew what happened to it.  We were very upset, and couldn't believe that somebody would take something from Jessica.

In April, a family friend bought a garden hook for Jessica’s grave, and hung a Ben’s Bell.  It was only a few weeks before that, too, was stolen. 

This evening we left the cemetery with our grief, sadness, and devastation that have consumed us for the past five and a half months – except tonight we also left with disgust.  As I knelt down at my daughter’s grave, our four-year-old son pointed to a large pile of dog feces and asked why somebody would let their dog do that to his sister.  I was sick to my stomach.  To know that there are people around us who not only steal from our daughter’s grave, but are also so ignorant and disrespectful to let their dog go to the bathroom on her grave is despicable. The St. Rose Cemetery is not a dog park.  It is a place of respect and peace – or at least that’s what we thought when we had to make that agonizing decision of where to lay our daughter to rest.

I can only hope that the person(s) responsible for violating our little girl’s final resting place reads this letter.  I can only hope they realize how ignorant, disgusting, and shameful their actions are.  Please treat all of our loved ones’ final resting places with the decency and respect they deserve.

Rich and Krista Rekos

Sweetbriar Lane, Sandy Hook                                                          May 26, 2013