Those responsible will be haunted by their actions

point of view

Posted By JACK POIRIER

After the contempt and anger that one immediately feels for the vandals who damaged more than 50 headstones at Lakeview Cemetery, there's also room for some pity.

This ghastly act is assumed to have been committed by a few young people, an act that caused real pain for the loved ones left behind to pick up the pieces of the physical and emotional damage inflicted.

But in the long run, there's no penalty as great as the prison of one's own guilt. At some point the sentence will be served.

For those who went to pay respects to deceased friends and relatives, only to be greeted by the destruction of a sacred site, the shock and sorrow can't be expressed in words.

When Steve Raes visited his wife's grave on Monday he found her headstone kicked down.

"It just breaks my heart," he told a reporter, anguish and confusion evident on his face.

Brad Lumley was visiting the final resting place of his parents when he came upon the wreckage.

"It left me quite shaky, actually," he said. "I can't imagine what would go through some-one's mind to make them do that."

The vandals responsible are likely too young and immature to realize what it really feels like to lose someone of importance in life. Likely, they've never had someone they truly loved die, or stood in silence during a cemetery interment. If they had, they wouldn't have done what they did.

But they'll grow up. They will mature and feel guilt. They will experience shame and cringe at the memory of their uncontrolled behaviour.

They will come to terms with just how much sorrow they've caused, and will struggle to comprehend how they could do something so despicable. The tormenters will become the tormented.