Over the summer The Courier-Herald ran an article about Jon Nichols, who had passed from pancreatic cancer last April. The article was about a bench and plaque that were placed at the top and bottom of Mount Peak in August in his memory. He was cremated and we spread his ashes at a favorite spot of his on the Columbia River over in eastern Washington. We did this instead of a gravestone in a cemetery somewhere.

Jon, my uncle, used to hike Mount Peak all the time. That’s why we chose to place the bench with a plaque put on it at the bottom of the trail. It has a quote on it. I believe it says “See you at the top.” And so once you get to the top we placed another plaque that says “Life is not a spectator sport.” It was one of his favorite quotes.

Well, one of our neighbors was over recently for dinner. This neighbor climbs Mount Peak daily and was telling us how the plaque at the top of the mountain has words and profanities scratched into it. That it is defaced and ruined. The plexiglass case that was around it is ruined as well. I find this truly disrespectful to my family and I. We had that put up there in memory of Jon. He’s dead. He’s gone. We will never see him again in this world. And to hear that people are defacing his memorial makes me very saddened. I would never do anything like that to someone else’s memorial of their family member.

It especially sad to me because I was never able to see the plaque at the top before it was ruined. Now all I have to look at is this piece of wood that is destroyed. The only reason it was done to just the one at the top is because no one spends time up there once they are up there. The bench at the bottom still looks beautiful. It makes me sad that people would do such a disrespectful thing to someone’s memorial. If my uncle were still alive and that happened to someone else in my family’s memorial, my uncle would probably have the head of whoever did it.

Ann Lenting