On Easter Sunday, my wife and I decided to bring our children to see my grandfather’s grave. It had been a while since they had been there.

My grandpa was a tail gunner on a B-24 in World War II. He was shot down over Germany and as a teenager, had to face the prospects of being a prisoner of war for 11 months.

It was only after his death that I’ve begun to piece that time together, including the 86-day Black March through a frozen northern Poland and Germany.

So as we arrived, we noticed his headstone had been knocked over. Was it vandals? Careless cemetery workers? We didn’t know.

Accidents happen. But as we teach our children, when you have an accident, you clean it up. You do your best to make it right. Right then.

The next morning, I called the city — the operator of the cemetery.

After informing them of the situation, I was told it would take “a couple weeks” to get to it. When asked if the department could call me to let me know it had been fixed, the response was, “I’ll try.”

The bureaucratic indifference oozed through the phone.

This isn’t a question about leaf pickup or why my faucets have a weak flow. It was about the final resting place for the remains of a human being.

Show a little respect and compassion.

Dissatisfied with the response, I thought a little media pressure could help.

Fox 17 captured the situation well:

The city admitted one of its workers knocked it over. But they apparently didn’t see any issue with taking their sweet time to make it right.

It was fixed after the news report ran five times between Monday night and Tuesday morning.

We should expect better from government employees, who are allegedly tasked with serving the public.