By David F. Rooney
Some heartless jerks have smashed the Angel of Hope, that gentle memorial to Brianne Wolgram, and broken her mother’s heart. This is the second time that vandals have smashed the small statue in Woodenhead Park.
“What makes this so hard is that it would be Brianne’s birthday on March 25 and I always take flowers there for her,” Sheryl Wolgram said as she surveyed the damage: a wing broken off and smashed on the pavement beneath the statue’s plinth.
Sheryl’s daughter, Brianne, disappeared on Sept. 5, 1998. Her vehicle was found on a logging road near the Alkokolex River 35 kilometres south of Revelstoke. Her disappearance has never been solved, which makes the damage to the statue difficult for Sheryl to bear. (You can find out more about Brianne’s disappearance at Brianne Wolgram- We have not forgotten.)
“This is the only place I can go to be with her,” Sheryl said, adding that she checks the memorial’s integrity every day. Today she discovered the worst had happened.
The last time the statue was vandalized, the Beta Sigma Phi Society helped replace the Angel of Hope. Sheryl doesn’t know if that will be possible this time.
“It cost $3,000 to replace it last time,” she said as her eyes gleamed with tears. “You can’t be doing that every time someone damages it.”
Whoever smashed the statue did more than simply damage a piece of molded concrete — they cruelly pierced the heart of a woman who wants only to remember and honour her daughter.
