Heartbroken.
That's how Vera Hancock describes her feelings about the damage done to the bench she paid to have made for her husband Allan so he could enjoy the view from their backyard.
“My husband had a massive stroke three years ago. To help him enjoy the outdoors, I had paid to have a stairwell and bench built for him, considering our backyard is on an incline,” said Hancock. “He loved to sit up there everyday and the view was his treat! Sad to say some kids wrecked his bench and stole one of his bird feeders.”
“I can't replace it and I don't know what we're going to do,” she said.
The couple lives on a fixed pension and can't afford to have it repaired, she said.
Their trailer backs up against a hill and Hancock had rock stairs with two handrails installed so her husband could get up to the spot with the wooden bench.
From there, he could look out west across the city and what people have told them is the best view in the city.
And it helped him get better.
“He sat on that bench day after day and he improved incredibly,” she said. They put up several bird feeders too and one is missing.
Little lights strung on the railings of the stairs for nighttime were stolen too, she said.
“When we're home, we're outside a lot,” said Vera. “I'm always out. I like to keep him moving.”
The couple was living in Fort McMurray and was camping when Allan had a massive stroke at age 49, she said. After many weeks in the University of Alberta hospital and many more at Glenrose Rehabilitation Centre, they sold their house, stuffed what they wanted to bring with them in their truck and drove to Terrace to their new place.
They had visited Terrace to fish in the past, met people and had thought about retiring here, she said.
She didn’t report the crime to police, feeling that too much time had passed.