A Charlottetown woman can’t understand why someone would burn the flower arrangement she put on the North River bridge in memory of her son.
“Why would somebody do that?’’ Dianne Young said Wednesday after placing a new flower arrangement on the bridge wall in memory of her son, Lennon Waterman, who took his own life four years ago.
“I can’t get that around my mind, why somebody would do that. I just don’t understand it. I’m sad that they would do that. They couldn’t have understood why it was there or they wouldn’t have done that.’’
Her son had been tormented for years by drug addiction and mental illness. She believes Waterman chose to end his suffering by jumping off the bridge. His body was found six months later on Easter Sunday a short distance away from the bridge.
Young considers the bridge her son’s final resting place, sacred ground and is determined to preserve his memory. That’s why she was quick to replace the flower arrangement that someone burned. She said it looks like someone took a torch to the last arrangement.
“I felt that, in one sense, it may be his burial ground and I would put them there in hopes that he would be found. I prayed that he would be found and he was found on Easter Sunday and it was like a miracle.
“The feeling of having him in that water was awful, like it was terrible. I can’t describe how awful it was.’’
Since putting up the flower arrangements, Young has found comfort in the comments people have been giving her.
“I would get a lot of messages from people saying the flowers were beautiful and that it made them think of other people who were suffering as well. It made them think of mental health and addictions in a different way.’’
Young’s son-in-law is a sculptor who has offered to help her find a way to put up an arrangement that won’t be so easily interfered with or burned. She suggested it might involve a cross with Lennon’s name across the middle, with it going onto the bridge in the spring.
“I felt like I needed to keep them there to honour him and remember him, to remember his struggles and to remember that other people have struggles, too, and that we need to do more.’’
Young is doing more. She’s part of a group trying to get a recovery house for people with addictions and subsequent mental health issues off the ground. They’ve managed to raise $68,000 so far.
As for the flowers, she can only hope the people responsible for burning the previous arrangement show some respect.
“I hope they’ll stay up for a while.’’
