A community has been outraged after a memorial to a “kind” pensioner, who served blind people for many years, was vandalised in a garden for people with disabilities.
Havering Volunteer Centre, who runs the Sensory Blind Garden in Harrow Lodge Park, Hornchurch, found the memorial "ripped" out and plants damaged on Tuesday (July 4).
On a post shared on social media, it claimed this wasn’t the first incident of anti-social behaviour in recent weeks.
The centre said that they had been “silently picking up broken bottles, drug paraphernalia, broken pots and plants and general destruction” at the garden.
But this act of damaging a memorial, it added, was beyond “any joke or high jinks”.
Mike Brace CBE, a former Paralympian and social worker, had installed the memorial to celebrate the life of Betty Jones, who worked as a reader for him for many years.
A plaque next to the memorial described her as a "lovely kind lady with a big heart".
Mike told The Recorder it was a “stupid act of vandalism”.
Recalling Betty's contribution to his life, he said he was an assistant director for children’s services in Islington when he put an ad in the paper for a reader to help his work.
Betty signed up for the job and since 1985 had assisted him with reading a range of material - from books to letters and documents.
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He shared: “I was in children’s social work, so I needed someone I could trust to read sometimes some very upsetting but confidential material to me. And she just stepped up and did all of that."
She became a part of the Talking Newspapers team for Mike and would then read newspapers for the benefit of the blind community.
He added: “She had that sort of understanding of what it was like to not be able to see and how you could then get information from newspapers."
When Betty died a few years ago, Mike said she left behind some money for different charities, one of them being the sensory garden.
He said: “So I thought it would be absolutely beautiful to have something there in her memory, out in the fresh air."
Now that the memorial has been damaged, Mike said they will replace it with a new one but he is very “saddened” by the incident.
Shelley Hart, chief executive of the Havering Volunteer Centre, told the Recorder that the vandalism has been reported to police.
The garden, she said, remained open 24/7 before but the centre is now being forced to consider shutting the gates at night.
She said: “This is a dedicated garden for the blind but we have enhanced it for other sensory impairments and disabilities too.
“So, it’s a little safe haven for people who are a little more disadvantaged than others.”
Shelley took over the garden in 2016 and has been taking care of it with the help of other members of the community.
While they get some donations, the funds are often not enough to be able to maintain the garden, Shelley added.
She said: “Some very, very unthoughtful people have caused a lot of other people some distress and alarm over the damage they have caused."
The Met Police did not respond to a request for comment.
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