Who is Lillian?
Is she someone who enjoyed a nice walk on one of the city’s many trails?
Or is she perhaps a four-legged friend of the wooded area on the east side of Sunnidale Park
Who constructed the plain wooden cross (memorial?) in her honour along the path?
Jeff Bergsma would like to know.
“My friend and I were walking down that trail and she happened to glance over and see the cross,” he says. “And we thought we’d go and check it out and see what it is. Somebody had made a homemade marker here.”
Bergsma pondered whether Lillian was a favourite pet or a human.
“The first thing I thought of was that a homeless person was being remembered here,” he says. “We went online and thought we might find some information about homeless deaths or something along those lines.
“Homeless people have less access to resources so I was thinking the ‘googlee’ eyes (on the cross) and all the detail here was something they could afford to do.
“But we don’t know,” he adds, with the sounds of Highway 400 traffic nearby, making for a combination of Mother Nature and a busy urban landscape.
“You get used to it,” Bergsma says of the traffic noise. “I like this area because it’s secluded and the City of Barrie did a wonderful job with this dog park.
“This place is well taken care of. It’s just such a beautiful area. It’s not over-abused.”
People are not usually without man’s best friend when they are traipsing the nearby trails, he adds.
“I’ve never seen anybody just walking. Everybody’s been in here with a dog; they (the people) are always so friendly,” Bergsma says. “Personally, if I could (know) it was a pet and a date that it was honoured, that would be nice.
“The more I think about it, I think (the marker is for) an animal. For us (humans), tombstones and markers are a way for us to say goodbye, a way for us for healing on our own.”
If you have any information that could help shed some light on this story, email us at [email protected].
