By Aila Boyd
aboyd@mainstreetnewspapers.com
The family of the late Bonnie Caldwell has two things to be thankful for this holiday season– the replacement of a stolen memorial bench and the return of the original bench.
A wrought iron bench was placed at Galatia Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Eagle Rock in June 2015 by Caldwell’s family as a tangible way to remember her by following her passing in January of that year.
Members of the church realized that the bench had been stolen on December 1. For weeks after it was reported as being stolen, local law enforcement officials searched for the bench but continued to come up emptyhanded, which prompted Twist & Turns in Roanoke, the company that made the bench, to make an identical bench and place it at the church roughly two weeks ago.
Shortly after Twist & Turns’ act of kindness, more good news came when Caldwell’s daughter, Terry Tucker, received a Facebook message on December 13 from a man she didn’t know saying that he had come across the original bench while out for a stroll in Uwharrie National Forest in North Carolina.
Tucker explained that the man, who is a retired law enforcement officer, knew that the bench wasn’t supposed to be there so he did an Internet search for “Bonnie Caldwell bench” and found multiple news stories about how it had been stolen. From there, he reached out to Tucker via Facebook and reported it to local law enforcement.
An officer from the Botetourt County Sheriff’s Office traveled the 150 miles to where the bench was found in order to retrieve it last Wednesday. It has since been returned to Caldwell’s family who is in the process of deciding what to do with both benches.
Tucker reports that the Botetourt County Sheriff’s Office is at a loss for how the bench ended up in the national forest.
