Between the crosses, row on row

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Published on Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Submitted photos. Left: Barry Campbell working on the crosses. Right: The crosses, ready to be placed in the Brookdale cemetery.

By Ken Waddell

Neepawa Banner/Neeepawa Press

The cemetery at Brookdale now contains 19 special markers to commemorate the sacrifice of the district’s war veterans. Cathy Campbell said she and her husband Barry had heard of the Brandon cemetery placing special markers on the veterans graves and they thought it was a very fitting tribute.

“When we started, we added up about 12 veterans’ graves, but we have only been in the area about 20 years. We checked with longer term residents and looked at the memorial, we realized  there were 19 vets’ graves in the Brookdale cemetery.” Barry got some metal and started making crosses and ended up with 20, 19 at the cemetery and one at the cenotaph to honour the ones who didn’t come home.

Barry and Cathy Campbell stand by Alvin and Jose Hart’s headstone, in the Brookdale cemetery, on Nov 6. Alvin served and Jose was a war bride. The Harts were the Campbell’s neighbours.

The Campbells worked with the Brookdale United Church and they held a special service with half of the service at the church and half at the cemetery. A good crowd of people showed up and as much as possible, the crosses were placed by family members. Cathy said they were very pleased to be able to make and place the crosses to remember the district’s war veterans.