The physical repair is a simple enough one. But the heartache will take longer to fix.
Jenny Pitt-Clark says her family is hurt and upset after a bronze plaque was stolen from a bench at Oakville's Lakeside Park dedicated to the memory of her late father. Jack Pitt chose the spot overlooking the harbour before his death in 2001. Along with Pitt's name and the years he lived was a simple message: "He loved this park".
Pitt-Clark explains her dad spent a lot of time there sailing and running. It's where her parents' love story unfolded.
"When he met my mother he took her to Lakeside Park on their first date," Pitt-Clark tells NEWSTALK 1010's Moore in the Morning. "They fell in love there. And then he proposed to her in Lakeside Park."
Pitt-Clark says the bench has become a place for members of her family to go, reflect and to "be with" her dad.
Then on Monday, the 16th anniversary of her father's death, Pitt-Clark's mother got a call from town officials telling her that her husband's plaque had been stolen. It is one of 16 similar memorial markers believed to have been snatched in Oakville in recent days.
Pitt-Clark suspects the plaque was stolen to be sold as scrap metal. She cannot understand why a dealer would accept a box of memorial plaques without calling the police.
She hopes to use the negative experience to increase regulation on the industry.
But David Kaplan who runs Combined Metal Industries, a network of scrap dealerships tells NEWSTALK 1010 his business faces many restrictions.
He wonders if plaques like the one dedicated to Jack Pitt might have been mixed in with a larger load, making them difficult to detect. Kaplan puts the price of bronze at $2.40/lb.
with files from James Moore