To the editor:

To the person who stole the Gold Star Mother brass marker from the New Springfield Lutheran Cemetery, do you not understand what you took?

A Gold Star Mother is a mother who lost a son or daughter in one of the wars while they were defending and protecting our country. You took my Great-Grandmother Ida’s marker which I had just recently placed on her grave.

Her son, my Great Uncle Gilbert, gave his life for this country in WWII. Did you also steal the other 75% of veteran markers that are also missing? Do you not understand that all of those veterans served this nation so that you could be free? Do you not understand the heartache the families endured while their loved ones were protecting our country? Do you not understand what you have done? Do you?

When a family member visits their loved one’s grave to remember and honor them and finds the military marker gone, the marker that shows others visiting the cemetery that the veteran buried there cared about this nation, they come away saddened again. Do you not understand? I do not understand you.

Joyce A. Allcorn,

Columbiana