According to her gravestone, Beverley St. Aubin cheated death by an extra month.
But her family is upset that her final marker has the wrong date, indicating to all who visit her grave site at LaSalle’s Heavenly Rest cemetery that the lifelong LaSalle resident died last Nov. 30 at age 75 and not on the actual date of Oct. 30.
Son Carl St. Aubin admits he didn’t even see the mistake hammered into granite on his first several visits to the cemetery after the stone was installed in March. It was a niece who spotted it a few weeks ago.
Now the family has been told by the Heavenly Rest Family of Catholic Cemeteries that the only way to remedy the situation is a new stone order, which St. Aubin said would cost $800. He says the family feels any correction should come at the expense of those who arranged the funeral.
Describing it as an “unfortunate scenario,” Heavenly Rest general manager John St. Aubin (no relation to the family) said the family signed off on the wording to go on the headstone after filling out the standard form. The certified proof was then forwarded to a stone engraver.
Carl St. Aubin said there were a lot of forms the family had to sign at a very emotional time surrounding his mother’s death. As for his suggestion of simply grinding off the wrong date and re-engraving the correct date, John St. Aubin said re-cutting granite can be risky and that there are rules on how narrow a headstone can be.
“There has been litigation where stones have fallen … we want a safe environment,” John St. Aubin said of cemetery gravestones.
dschmidt@windsorstar.com or on Twitter @schmidtcity
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