Saugus mom ‘heartbroken’ over items stolen from son’s memorial

SAUGUS – A Saugus woman said she’s “heartbroken” after learning someone recently removed a memorial she kept for her son at the intersection of Walnut Street and Water Street.”We had his boxing gloves, his boxing shoes, I tried to take off all of the old flowers and stuff, but over here we had old pictures,” said Cathy Lucia, as she looked at the telephone pole near where her 20-year-old son John died in a motorcycle accident last year. “On this side there was a big white Teddy bear. I had a bunny from Easter with a cross of palms on it.”The only remaining tribute is a cross about 10 feet up on the pole made of pipes and topped with a sprinkler head, and Lucia’s old pliers and pencil, a tribute by a co-worker from a local plumbing company.”His partner made that,” said Lucia on Thursday. “He made a cross out of JJ’s tools and his pencil because he worked for Lynnhurst Plumbing. At least he put it high enough.”A graduate of Northeastern Metro Tech, Lucia had been working on becoming a licensed plumber before he died on the morning of May 29.”The day I laid him out, June 2, he was supposed to go for his license,” said a tearful Lucia.Lucia said her son left the house at around 6:20 that morning to go fishing with his father, who lives in Salem, N.H.But he lost control of his 2009 white Honda motorcycle as he traveled down Walnut Street and collided with an oncoming truck, she said.”I keep blaming myself,” Lucia said. “If I got up and made him breakfast it wouldn’t have happened.”Lucia first found out about the missing items a week before Mother’s Day, when her niece drove by and noticed everything gone.Lucia said a family friend told her they saw “an older gentleman” taking the items down.”I would just like to know why,” said Lucia. “Why did he do it? By now he probably threw everything out. All of my memories of my son ? are gone. How can a person have the nerve to do that? I want to let them know, whoever it is, they ruined my Mother’s Day. It was my first Mother’s Day without him ? He had no right whatsoever to touch my son’s memorial. No one has the right.”Department of Public Works Director Joe Attubato said none of his workers would have gone near the memorial.”They would never touch that,” said Attubato.But while the pole sits empty now, there are still countless signatures and messages of love written on it from the ground up to at least eight feet high. And as the one-year anniversary of her son’s death approaches, Lucia said she’s confident friends and family will build the memorial back to where it was.”On May 29 there will be more flowers and stuff going right back up here,” said Lucia.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].