Flood waters carry away memorial bench from edge of Grand River in Conestogo

When the flood waters rose on Fridaythe Grand River spilled its banks andtook with it David Simon's memorial bench from the fifth green on the Conestoga Golf Course's Goose Run in Conestogo.

• Flooding witnessed as more than 100 mm rain falls in Grand River watershed Friday

Simon, 75, died last year of pulmonary fibrosis andthe fifth green had always been a special place for him, his daughter Kate Simon-Hendel told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo.

"It's actually placed in a spot that my Dad would call his 'office,' so if he said he was 'going to the office' you knew where he was going."

Simon would walk or drive an old golf cart100 meters from their home out to what at the time was a rickety old bench on the bankof the Grand River.

Of course no work ever got done out there, Simon-Hendel said with a laugh.

'The bench isreally like his gravestone'

So when he died, the family's neighbour, Tom Nitsche,and his sons built a bench and installed it on a re-enforced platform.

An engraved plaque reads "In memory of David John Simon. 'Mr. Wilson' "in reference to Nitsche'stwo boys, and the legendary grumpy neighbour in the Dennis the Menace comics.

"It's a place we go on a regular basis, and on special occasions we have a drink with Daddown there. On Father's Day we were there all together," said Simon-Hendel.

"It's like a gravesite, really... His ashes were scattered, so this is where we go to be with him, and the bench is really like his gravestone."

The bench was last seen on Thursday, and when Simon-Hendel's mother went down to check on it Saturday morning, it was gone.

The Grand River flows from Conestogo down to Preston and then into Paris, said Simon-Hendel. She saidshefigures there's a 50-50 chance that someone might see it, or part of it, and said she'd love to have part of it back.

"The water was moving so quickly. There is a chance it has been broken apart, but even if we can get back just the part with the plaque, it would be so meaningful to us."

• Have you seen this bench? Contact Simon-Hendel via Facebook