Memorials from Seacliff Beach Wall Removed; Left at Supervisor’s Office
By Noel Smith
Sometime overnight on February 8, the Aptos Memorial Wall was stripped of its memorials. The plaques and pictures and other memorabilia that had been gathering there for the past 10-15 years, in honor of local residents that had passed away, disappeared. The owner of the wall, Nicole Richardson, has made her point. Because it’s her wall, she has the right to remove anything that has been placed on it without her permission at any time she desires.
Some say it all started about in the late 1990s, almost twenty years ago.
The wall, which sits at the west end of the RV camping area of Seacliff State Park where State Park Drive becomes Las Olas Drive, became a place where residents placed small memorials on it to loved ones that had died.
Once the tradition started, people kept adding to the memorials over the years. The wall is the western terminus and turn-around for those that walk along the pedestrian trail of Seacliff State Beach. There was no sign then or now that said the wall was private property, it was just there.
With its trees and their shade, the sound of the waves and the wind, a destination to go to, and then return from, this became a place to pause, to reflect, and to remember. According to those that visited the wall regularly, there were no wild parties or noisy gatherings to disturb those that lived on the other side of the wall.
But the Richardson’s were evidently disturbed by the fact that the other side of their wall, the side they couldn’t see from their house, was being used for something other than … just a wall!
In August of 2014 they gave notice that they were going to remove the memorials. Many in the community responded in shock that something so reverential could be considered a nuisance. After a couple of months of controversy, nothing more was heard from the wall’s owners until the sudden removal of the memorials.
Memorial plaques that have been taken down can be retrieved in the lobby at Twin Lakes Church. Hours are 9-5 p.m.
Nicole Richardson, her family or her lawyer have not said anything publicly about why they took down the memorials. The wall has now reverted into … just a wall — a sad physical and emotional separation between its owners and the community‘s memories.
