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Blog Entry 3 of 47 What's happening in YOUR neighborhood?

Hi everyone, I'm the YourHub.com editor for the Ventura County Star. I'm glad you found your way to the blog section. If you're not familiar with them, "blog" is simply short for "Web log" and you can think of it as an online journal where you can wax philosophic on subjects large or small, international or personal. Just remember if you choose to add the blog to the YourHub listings, anyone can read what you write. My blog tends to be about random thoughts and observations that hopefully will spur conversation either on local topics or local effects of wider-reaching topics. Please feel free to leave comments with your own views -- or better yet, start your own blog and write about it!

Blog Url: http://vc.yourhub.com/~BeccaBlog

Recovering memories

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Contributed by: Becca Whitnall on 5/22/2007

Marianne Ratcliff, opinion editor for the Star, passed along a story that I thought I'd share. It's a letter that ran in the May 20 edition of the Ventura County Star from a mother whose daughter's final resting place was broken into and robbed. I thought it could use all the exposure possible so I'm sharing it here.

"The mom is truly heartbroken and has written 138 handwritten notes to pawn and coin shops, asking that they be on the lookout," writes Marianne.

If you can help, please do. As the letter says, no questions asked.

Here is the letter that ran:

Theft of keepsakes devastates mother
By Barbara Austin

Grave robbing. We have sunk to a new low.

I thought that grave robbers was an archaic term, but obviously not. My
daughter, Holly Ann Austin, was killed at the hands of a drunken driver in
October 2003. I put her ashes in a final resting place in May 2004 in a
"niche" at a local cemetery.

Niches are small spaces where one can put the ashes of a loved one and view
some pictures and mementos behind thick glass that I was assured was
tamper-proof and safe.

In 2006, someone removed the "tamper-proof" glass and screws and took a gold
garnet ring, her birthstone, that her fiance gave her and a smaller-stoned
ring that her now-deceased grandmother gave her, but, most importantly, an
oval, gold locket, the size of a silver dollar, with a coat of arms and the
name "Downer" engraved on the front.

Inside the locket is a picture of my grandmother holding my mother as a
baby. The locket is the only memento I have of my grandparents and my
mother, who are all now deceased.

I lost my only daughter who was 26 years old and now a thief robs her grave
with what was the last passing down of the locket because my daughter is
dead.

Whoever took the locket, I pray to God you will give it back, no questions
asked.

Barbara Austin lives in Ventura. The locket can be returned to the Opinion
office of The Star, to be returned to Mrs. Austin. The address is Opinion,
550 Camarillo Center Drive, Camarillo, Calif., 93010; mailing address is
P.O. Box 6006, Camarillo, CA 93011.

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