Woman Tears Down Memorial Because 'There's Been Enough Mourning'

When 12-year-old Sammy Cohen Eckstein was tragically killed three months ago by a driver in Park Slope, his family and friends put up a memorial to honor him. It’s been up (apparently without incident) ever since. Well, until a woman who, according to Gothamist, is also a member of the neighborhood decided there had been too much mourning.

Understandably, Eckstein’s family and friends were not overjoyed by the fact that this woman had proclaimed herself to be the official arbiter of mourning cut-off times (but not good taste, obviously). How do you even decide that? Do you count days off a calendar? Do you do a google search? Do you sit in your house not being able to focus on a book because you’re so upset that some people just can’t get over a death even though it happened a whole 12 weeks ago? Whatever, all of that is fine. As long as you’re keeping it to yourself. Because if you have any issues with a memorial to a dead child, you probably need to look deep inside instead of grabbing yourself a pair of scissors and marching down there to show everyone what’s what.

I wish the anonymous woman had done that, but here’s what actually happened:

Biked into 3rd St. entrance to Prospect Park just as a woman was cutting all of the mementos off of Sammy’s memorial. The woman came prepared with a scissor and large shopping bag to put the mementos in. It so happened that another neighborhood parent – whose child was also a friend of Sammy’s – happened to run by and as he yelled at her she said she felt that there had been “enough mourning.”

HOW FUCKED UP IS THAT? Is there no other way someone could do this? You know what you do when you’re upset that other people’s mourning times don’t match yours? You suck it up (or go through a proper channel. Just being a part of the neighborhood doesn’t give you the right to start cutting shit down). You don’t have to bake anyone a cake or pretend to like it, but you also have to keep it to yourself.

Fortunately, the self-proclaimed captain of the joy patrol was stopped before she could do any damage. And while the memorial is up, I can’t imagine what it must feel like for the family to not only lose a child but to know that there are people in the neighborhood actively against their expression of grief. 🙁