“Social Distancing” With A Purpose In Kingston

The Tadeu family has found a way to “social distance” with a purpose.

Since Monday, March 16, 2020 the Kingston family has gone to Cataraqui Cemetery in Kingston to clean the graves of war veterans and fallen soldiers.

Kerri Tadeu is one of three people who adopted the entire section of the Highway of Heroes from CFB Trenton to Toronto.

Twice a year, she organizes a number of Military Members, Veterans, First Responders and Families of the Fallen to clean the 344 kilometres of highway the fallen soldiers  travelled on since being repatriated at CFB Trenton from Afghanistan.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Tadeu family has been like any other family – thinking of ways to best spend their time together as a family.

Tadeu, her husband David, children Emma (age 12), Tristan (age 10), Nicholas (age 8) and Tyler (age 7) have been visiting the cemetery daily cleaning hundreds of gravestones of fallen soldiers and veterans as an Act of Remembrance at a time when many are reflecting on what it means to be Canadian.

Joining the family for the day was Natalie Fisher (age 12).

It was no coincidence that Monday was the start of their project – it was the date of death for Canadian soldier Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry Sergeant Jason Boyes who was killed in Afghanistan by an improvised explosive device on March 16, 2008.

Joining the family at a social distance were Veterans Brian Weber who is an Afghanistan veteran and is still serving and Geoffrey Harbinson.

With hundreds of military gravestones it wasn’t hard to find a place of solitude for each person.

The Tadeu children stayed relatively close to each other while the veterans were off on their own, sharing in conversation, at a safe distance from one another.

The sound of Scotch Brite scrubbing pads could be heard in the beautiful quiet cemetery.  At times other people walked along the roadways around the military gravestones.  There was even a firetruck that came into the cemetery on an emergency run.

But all the while people with a purpose scrubbed and peeled the years of wear away from the gravestones as an Act of Remembrance.  The gravestones aren’t perfect given their age, but they’ve been cleaned with love, care and respect.

Tadeu’s plans are to visit the cemetery daily until all the gravestones have been cleaned finding it mentally therapeutic and a way to educate her children in these challenging and changing times.