A GRIEVING Bathurst family has been shattered by the heartless theft of ornaments from their baby boy’s grave this week.
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Little Declan Lee Miller died in July last year due to bronchial pneumonia caused by swine flu.
He was just 11 weeks old.
His parents, Samantha and Paul Miller, are trying to move forward in the wake of the tragedy, but their pain has been magnified by people they describe as “lowlives”.
The Millers’ plight comes at the same time as the Bathurst community this week was angered by several reports of Christmas lights being stolen – but thefts from a baby’s grave are sure to outrage people even more.
The family put together a memorial at Declan’s grave in the Birralee baby section of the Bathurst cemetery so people could visit him.
However, in the past two weeks, thieves have stolen solar lights and a dragonfly ornament.
On Wednesday night, Mrs Miller expressed her disgust through a post on the Western Advocate Facebook page. Since then, more than 150 people – almost all total strangers – have “liked” her post to show their support.
“These are inexpensive things but to the mothers, fathers and families who go to the effort to do this for any of the children up there, it breaks our hearts,” Mrs Miller said.
“It’s so hard that every time I go to visit my son, I end up cranky because everything is gone.
“I’ve even been up there to find that a person had defecated up there. It’s quite disgusting.
“Perhaps the lowlives who have nothing better to do than to destroy our children’s resting places need to grow up. Please leave these special gifts – the only ones we can buy for our children with wings – alone.”
Mrs Miller was prompted to issue her public plea to vandals after reading about this week’s spate of Christmas-related thefts.
“Don’t get me wrong, I feel for those people who spend hours upon hours putting the lights up only for some idiot to destroy them,” she said. “But this never gets any attention.”
Mrs Miller told the Western Advocate yesterday she also caught the swine-flu related pneumonia at the same time Declan did.
“My baby died on July 13. The day before, I was put in hospital and went into a coma a few days later,” she said. “Then they took me down to Nepean.
“They were holding off Declan’s funeral plans because I was that sick they thought it might have been a double funeral.
“It was the toughest of times. Now we have to endure this type of thing. It’s just heartbreaking.
“We’d replace the items tomorrow, but it’s likely they’ll only get taken again. Now we are going to wait until Christmas Eve before we go back. Then we can put up some more solar lights and a little Christmas tree for Declan.”
Sadly, this is not the first time grieving families have been devastated by the actions of others targeting the Birralee children’s cemetery.
In August 2009, the Western Advocate reported that heartless thieves had stolen small toys and balloons from a baby’s grave.
A similar incident occurred last year when vandals stomped on a baby’s grave, leaving it in pieces. This callous act was covered by the Western Advocate in April 2011.