Long Beach mother wants memorial to slain daughter to stay put
The memorial to a 9-year-old stabbed to death two years ago has become a refuge for her mother. But the city says it must move.
By Corina Knoll
February 16, 2014, 7:16 p.m.
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(Photo caption: Graciela Fernandez and her youngest daughter, visit the memorial to Fernandez's 9-year-old daughter Xiomara, who was stabbed to death in 2012. The memorial has been a source of comfort for Fernandez, but the city of Long Beach says it must be removed. - Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times / January 30, 2014)
It began with fresh flowers, but the bouquets quickly withered. So Graciela Fernandez planted a vine that grew long enough to wrap around a wrought-iron heart staked in the ground. She added ribbons of pink and white to the chain-link fence.
One day she arrived to find gifts from a stranger. A birdbath and a bench. The patch of dirt had also been outlined in brick and filled in with wood chips. She sobbed at the gesture.
It's been nearly two years since her 9-year-old daughter Xiomara was discovered stabbed in the parking lot of a Long Beach church. Her stepfather was found beside her with self-inflicted wounds. He survived. Xiomara did not.
Since that Saturday in April 2012, Fernandez has paid weekly visits to the site of her daughter's death.
But Long Beach city officials now say the memorial, which sits just outside the parking lot on northbound Woodruff Avenue, must be removed from public property.
(snip)
She cannot fathom the memorial being moved.
"I want Xiomara's memory to live in the spot where she left this Earth," she said. "This is where I've come to terms with what happened. Being able to come here has given me consolation and maintains my strength."
Long Beach Deputy City Manager Tom Modica said they hope to work with Fernandez on other options, such as planting a tree in a park in remembrance of Xiomara or moving the memorial onto private property.
"We really understand that the family is grieving and wants a place to remember their daughter," he said. "However, there are certain rules about maintaining the public right of way for public services. We have a responsibility to fulfill the law and apply it equally."
The city has a record of one complaint about the memorial. Otherwise, Fernandez seems to have the support of the neighborhood, which was shaken by the events that took place there.
(snip)
Trujillo, 33, was charged with one count of murder with the special circumstance that he killed Xiomara because she was a witness to a crime, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said. He is also charged with five counts of oral copulation/sexual penetration with a child under the age of 10. He is being held at Twin Towers.
(snip)
The memorial's roadside location has beckoned drivers who pull over to learn its meaning.
Long Beach resident Maleea Ehuan had been curious about the site for months and finally stopped a few weeks ago.
She wrote the name Xiomara on her hand and looked it up online when she got home. The details of the little girl's death made her cry. She hasn't stopped thinking about it and plans to take her children to tie ribbons on the fence.
"If the memorial would have been just in some random park, maybe I never would have seen it, never would have stopped," Ehuan, 44, said.
"The fact that the murder happened right there has a little more meaning. The least anybody could do would be to honor Xiomara by letting her family have a spot to go to where this horrible tragedy took place and maybe make new memories."
(snip)
"My daughter died here," she says. "I don't want to go to another place. She left this world right here."
She says she had seen nothing to make her suspect that Trujillo was abusing her daughter. The couple met when she had three children and was pregnant with Xiomara. They had two children together and Xiomara was raised to believe Trujillo was her father.
Fernandez was working the cash register at a fast-food chain the night her daughter disappeared. She says she tried to reach Trujillo all night, but he didn't answer his phone. The next time she saw Xiomara was in the funeral home.
(snip)
A gray minivan suddenly pulls over. A woman gets out and approaches Fernandez. She tells her she lives in the house across the street.
"I love that you did this," she says. "Ever since you put this up, I feel that your daughter has been at peace."
The woman has one request: She'd like to help make the memorial bigger.
corina.knoll@latimes.com
MUCH More@Link
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-xiomara-memorial-20140217,0,1845482,full.story#axzz2tbEDQPQk
This in depth, heartbreaking update, written two years after Xiomara's murder at the hands of the man she believed was her father, literally shatters my heart. In researching for an update, I was happy to hear the memorial hasn't yet been moved, and that her mother has the support of 99.9999999999% of the community. May the powers that be find it in their hearts to allow the memorial to stand. Xiomara's memory, and her memorial, should be allowed to remain (IMVHO). She continues to touch the hearts and minds of those she knew and loved her, as well as complete strangers. Her legacy lives on. :rose:
I cropped the original image in order to preserve the privacy of her sibling, which was published in the LA Times, and I cried knowing they were robbed of the joy of growing up together. Fly High Beautiful Angel.....
