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When longtime Edmontonian Nora May Dalton (nee Crossley) died in August 1996, her family scattered the 82-year-old’s ashes in Queen Elizabeth Park, where she often played as a child.

Her children also purchased a memorial bench in the park from the City of Edmonton. It was installed in the park in 1997, bearing a plaque with Dalton’s name and overlooking the North Saskatchewan River.

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Twenty-one years later, Dalton’s bench plaque is gone, replaced by a City of Edmonton advertisement after her daughter refused to pay $2,500 in newly introduced upkeep fees for a bench she believed she already owned.

A city spokesman said Friday changes to its Benchmark Program are on hold, and that some commemorative plaques pried off the benches may return if families wish.

“That’s just wonderful, and so good for the other people, too, that have been affected,” Dalton’s daughter, Barbara Dalton, said Friday after hearing of the change.