A Thames Ditton widower was delighted this week, when the Elmbridge Guardian and Shoots garden centre, Cobham, presented him with a statue to replace one stolen from his garden by thieves.
Charles Piper, 61, was distraught when he discovered a marble angel had been stolen from his front garden, just before he was due to scatter his wife’s ashes under it.
Mr Piper lost his wife, Esther, on New Year’s Day, after spending one last night by her side in hospital.
The couple had been married 41 years, after meeting in Ireland as children.
The Elmbridge Guardian followed his touching story in a series about the borough’s carers, in which he described the hard decision of putting Esther in a home.
He said at the time: “She was so much a part of my life and I feel like she’s been ripped away from me.”
After reading his story in last week’s paper, Shoots garden centre in Cobham decided to replace the stolen statue free of charge.
Stuart Watson, general manager at Shoots, said: “After reading the article ‘Swines take wife’s angel’ I felt so saddened that anyone would do that, that we decided to see if we could help.
“We contacted the newspaper and said we would like to offer a replacement to Mr Piper.
“The statue we chose is cupid, which symbolises love, and as he is sleeping peacefully it seemed quite fitting.”
“We are always happy to help out in any ways we can within our local community.”
When we presented him with the stone replacement on Wednesday evening he was overjoyed.
He said: “I’m really overwhelmed by it. I was going to get another one just to show them that I won’t give up so this is lovely. It really is beautiful.
“I’m really very grateful. I didn’t expect anything like this. It’s nice to know there are some good people out there. I’ve always said if you’re nice to people, you’ll get it back and this proves it.”
He bought the stolen angel statue five years ago and moved it into the front garden after Esther died because she had always loved it and he wanted to see it every day.
Surrey Police were forced to put the investigation on hold pending new inquiries because there were no witnesses or forensic evidence. Mr Piper was resigned to the fact he would not see it again.
Mr Piper added: “Thank you. Esther would have loved this.”
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