‘Angels Everywhere’ at Fund-Raiser to Buy Headstone

It was no ordinary garage sale. Family members held the event last weekend to raise money for a headstone for a relative who died two years ago. But before the sale got underway, a local company donated a marker after reading of the family’s plight.

Tracy Van Dinter, a mother of three young daughters, was 27 when she died in a car accident. She and her husband lacked life insurance. Her parents, Nikki and Denny Hall, took out a loan to pay for her funeral.

They had spent the last two years trying to pay off that debt and come up with enough money for a marker. Then they came up with the idea for a garage sale. “We thought it would be a healing for” the three children, Nikki Hall said.

The owners of Castle Monument Co. thought the same thing.

“First, I cried a little bit, and then I realized that we were going to go ahead and do this for them,” said Tammy Castillo, who with her husband, Joe, owns the company.

“Over the years, I’d say we’ve donated a marker maybe a handful of times. It has to be a pretty extraordinary situation. It was the kids that got to me. They need a place to go in which to visit their mom.”

Castillo said the marker will cost about $1,000.

Hall said hundreds of people showed up for the two-day sale in Irvine, which netted $1,700.

She said some came by to drop off items; others wanted to hand over money or checks, some preferring to hand money directly to Van Dinter’s daughters, Crystal, 10; Danielle, 8; and Julia, 3. The girls live with their father, a property maintenance supervisor who is unemployed, and his parents.

“The money we raised is exactly enough to take care of the plot and the grave site,” Hall said. “There were angels everywhere.”