The Mahim parishioner was dawdling away on a Saturday when she received a call from an uncle at 9 am. “Someone has broken the 100-year-old tombstone on your grandmother’s grave,” said the voice on the other end. I was shocked, disturbed and saddened,” she says. After saying a short prayer, she and her husband set off for the cemetery at St Michael’s Church in Mahim where her grandmother lay. 

This cross, laid down by *Sharon’s grandfather in 1918 when his young wife passed away, was part of the family plot where her grandparents and parents were also laid to eternal rest. “I kept asking myself, why would anybody do something this awful? If it was a robbery, one knows the intention, but what can anyone gain from vandalism?” she laments. Just the year before, the family had the Italian marble cross polished to commemorate her mother’s death anniversary.