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Accident victim's marker replaced By MAY WONG Santa Cruz Sentinel SANTA CRUZ -- A stone that was lovingly made in memory of a Santa Cruz student from Eagle Point but was discarded in a paving project this year will be resurrected today. University of California Santa Cruz officials will replace the stone that was a memorial for Sarah Ann Mercer, a 19-year-old sophomore who was struck by a car and killed two years ago on Empire Grade Road. "This young woman was one of our most promising students, and we want to work with her mother so that the continuation of the memory of her daughter would be accomplished," said Liz Irwin, UCSC spokeswoman. Mercer's mother, Carole Mercer of Eagle Point, painstakingly embedded the original stone in June, when she visited for the first time the site of her daughter's death and spoke at what would have been her daughter's graduation at UCSC's Merrill College. It was a traumatic journey for Mercer. Sarah was her only child. The roadside memorial gave Mercer a sense of closure, but that collapsed when she learned from her daughter's friend several weeks later that the stone had been unwittingly destroyed or dumped during a state parks paving project. Mercer is grateful for the outpouring of support she has received since the story of the missing stone was published in Santa Cruz and in the Mail Tribune. "I feel tremendous relief. It was not easy bringing it up," she said, referring to her plea for help in replacing Sarah's stone. "But what's worse than speaking ill of the dead is not to speak of them at all." After reading the story of the missing stone, Randi Hodges, of Shady Cove, offered to make a replacement. Hodges, the owner of Northwest Stone Wise, made the original stone for Sarah and made the new one in the same design. University officials will replace the stone on Empire Grade Road near where Sarah was killed, only this time in a protected area owned by the university. Memorial donations in Sarah's name may be made to the Eagle Point Library Capital Building Fund, P.O. Box 459, Eagle Point, OR 97524. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA