{"id":431304,"date":"2026-05-17T00:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T00:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/431304\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T00:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T00:41:09","slug":"whanganui-mothers-headstone-robbed-of-300-worth-of-crystals-daughter-devastated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/431304\/","title":{"rendered":"Whanganui mother\u2019s headstone robbed of $300 worth of crystals, daughter devastated"},"content":{"rendered":"

She remembered her being a \u201cfun, vibrant woman\u201d who had an eye for beautiful things and loved her daughters deeply.<\/p>\n

\"MelissaMelissa Takao-Brandt’s mother’s grave after she first stuck $300 worth of crystals on it. A teddy bear made of red quartz is visible near the base of the headstone.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Takao-Brandt moved down from Waikato to spend a few months living in Whanganui to take care of her aunty, who had also been diagnosed with cancer.<\/p>\n

While there, she visited her mother\u2019s grave every day and eventually had the idea to glue crystals there.<\/p>\n

Takao-Brandt recently saw posts on Whanganui community Facebook groups that mentioned headstones being broken and objects going missing from graves.<\/p>\n

She said she had an \u201cawful feeling\u201d so she asked a friend to go check on her mother\u2019s grave on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"MelissaMelissa Takao-Brandt with her mother, Fiona Deidre Griffin, before she passed away from cancer at the age of 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe sent me the photos and my heart just dropped.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just burst into tears because there\u2019s only like two or three crystals left.\u201d<\/p>\n

She told the Herald she had used nailbond glue, a strong construction adhesive, to stick them to the headstone.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would have had to use force to get those off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Takao-Brandt ran Blessed by Nature NZ, a small business which sold crystals and other products.<\/p>\n

She believed the crystals from her mother\u2019s grave would have sustained damage while being pried off and did not think they could be resold for much money.<\/p>\n

\"AA picture Melissa Takao-Brandt’s friend sent her on Wednesday, which showed only a few crystals remained on the headstone.<\/p>\n

Takao-Brandt posted about the incident on social media to remind people to go check on the graves of their family and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople may see \u2018just crystals\u2019 but to me, they were placed there with love, grief, memories and intention.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Aramoho Cemetery is Whanganui District Council\u2019s main site for cremations and burials<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Herald has contacted the council for comment. <\/p>\n

Janhavi Gosavi is a Wellington-based journalist for the New Zealand Herald who covers news in the capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She remembered her being a \u201cfun, vibrant woman\u201d who had an eye for beautiful things and loved her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[52404,74,1558,2836,7748,14032,33452,43714,29434,157052,116823,114425,14236,296,220835,30510,111,43,139,69,1118,134316,50557,27517,108559,73172,32561,1524,3608,1883,5977,1354,19985],"class_list":["post-431304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-52404","tag-after","tag-been","tag-burst","tag-crystals","tag-daughter","tag-devastated","tag-discovering","tag-enormous","tag-glued","tag-graveyard","tag-headstone","tag-held","tag-into","tag-lovingly","tag-mothers","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-prised","tag-robbed","tag-robbery","tag-sentimental","tag-tears","tag-value","tag-waikato","tag-were","tag-whanganui","tag-which","tag-woman","tag-worth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}