Memorial to Tanya Burr, 1981-2002

Installation of the Headstone

Tanya's headstone was installed on 5 December 2003, and these two photos below were taken later the same day, after Kieran and I tidied up the fake flowers etc. A couple of days later I replanted the little garden in front of the headstone with more pansies, retrieved the two little red cars variously from the path and the garden (yet again!!) and fixed the curbing around the little garden. We own the next plot, so that is why the bits and pieces are spread onto that.

There are some more photo tiles to go onto the base of the headstone, but it was safer to wait until it was installed to make sure they fit the available space. These are of Tanya overseas, the cats and the car - all things she loved.

The headstone, which ironically is unique in the cemetery just as she would have liked it, is from Sweden (called blue pearl) and its style name is 'Norge', which means 'Norway'. These two - Sweden and Norway - symbolise where Tanya had so recently been and are also part of her ethnic heritage. The base is common garden variety black granite, as the original base didn't include the sloping part and it seemed a shame to get that and then chop it up. The gold text describes what happened to Tanya. That is outlined on the next pages - linked below.

Many thanks to Anderson Memorials (of PN, Fdg & Wanganui) and NZ Women's Weekly for their respective roles in relation to the headstone.

The 'messy-looking' sinking concrete slabs were fixed two days later