By Lauren LaFleur
assistanteditor@jacksonvilleprogress.com
Ellen Jenkins cannot hide her distress.
She just returned from her daughter’s grave in Meador Cemetery, where she made a discovery that leaves her almost speechless — a set of solar lights she put on Carmen’s headstone has been stolen again.
She has replaced the lights three times after they were repeatedly taken, and they were stolen yet again over the weekend.
Ellen said the lights are the only thing that bring comfort to Carmen’s surviving family members — especially Carmen’s sister, Jessica, who is only 9.
“The girls were always scared of the dark, and it’s comforting to Jessie to go by there and see the lights and see her sister’s not in the dark,” Ellen said. “It’s very comforting to all of us when we go by and see that she’s not among the dark headstones — that she’s a light.”
Ellen said her biggest fear is that further damage would be done to her daughter’s grave, especially to her headstone. Other than the lights, Ellen has taken home all the other trinkets left at Carmen’s grave because they were being vandalized.
“It just feels like it’s a matter of time before something happens, and I want it to stop before then,” she said.
She said it’s been a difficult year for the family — they lost Carmen on Dec. 20, 2008, in an ATV accident.
“Our routines have stopped. We’re having such a tough time,” Ellen said. “Jessie’s about to have her first birthday without Carmen, and they used to do everything together.”
Even Carmen’s older sister Linda, now 17, did not want a birthday party to celebrate her own big day this year.
But the repeated thefts from her daughter’s grave is making all the adjusting even more difficult for the family, Ellen said.
“The first time I saw they were taken, I just spun around; I started crying,” she said. “When I went out there and saw they were gone again, it was like total chaos in my head. It just hurts so much.
“She’s being violated. They may just be headstones to someone else, but it’s my little girl there.”
Ellen is now offering a reward to anyone who helps her find the person or persons who are taking the lights from Carmen’s grave.
“I don’t want information — I want the people doing this,” she said.
Anyone with knowledge of who is taking the lights can call the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department at 903-683-2271.
