A devastated family woke up in the night to find the memorial for their dad who died of cancer up in flames.
Melanie Powell, 41, from Ellesmere Port was startled awake in the early hours of Tuesday 10 September to the sound of banging, and rushed downstairs to see what was going on.
On opening the back door of her home, Melanie says, she was "hit by the heat" of the fire and soon realised that the garden fence beside her partner's memorial had been set alight.
The 41-year-old said the special area was set up in memory of her partner Stuart Gregory, who died of lymphoma on March 23 this year.
Melanie says losing her partner Stuart, who was just 37, has been "heartbreaking" for her and her three children, Kenzie, 12, Molly, 15, and Karlton, 22.
The memorial garden, paid for by a family fundraiser, was set up so that Melanie and her children had somewhere to go and sit when they "are having one of those down days."
Pictures show the damage caused by the fire, which Melanie believes spread from the alleyway beside her home, where she had left a carpet and a wardrobe to be collected by someone the next day.
She told the ECHO: "Stuart was back and forth to the hospital last year with chest pains and then he started getting pain in his arm and in his hands but the doctors couldn't quite figure out what it was.
"Then in October they told him he had lymphoma but they said it was 100% curable.
"But the first lot of chemotherapy didn't work and then the second didn't work and the third.
"That's when they told us there's nothing else they could do and that he had three weeks to live."
After receiving the heartbreaking news, Stuart came home, where he died one week later.
Melanie added: "It was very hard. I work in end-of-life care but it was really hard with it being my own partner, we were all heartbroken.
"So my kids came up with the idea to make the memorial garden, so that we'd have somewhere to sit and be with him when we are having one of those down days.
"We put different signs and plaques there and there's a picture of Stuart on a love heart.
"It's just sickening to think that someone could do that, it really is."
She added: "It was about 2:40am when I woke up because I heard banging noises and when I went down and opened my door my neighbour said 'your fence is on fire, go to the back garden.' I was just in shock.
"And when I opened the door the heat just hit me. My other neighbour was there with a hose pipe trying to put it out and then the fire brigade came.
"I had a picture of my partner on a heart in the memorial so I was focused on getting that out."
Melanie's sister, Cath Powell, said: "It was somewhere for them all to go and sit and Melanie would take Stuart's ashes out with her so she felt like he was with them.
"My nieces and nephews were crying, I felt sick when I heard.
"I was fuming and I don't want to give up until I've found who did it.
"Everyone in the area knows about the memorial garden. Our friends and family raised the money for it from a fun day at the community centre."
Since the fire, C&M All Seasons Tree Specialists, who designed the memorial garden for Melanie and her family have said they will come back to repair it for them.
Melanie added: "They've been amazing. They are so kind and they were really upset when they heard about the fire so they're going to come back and fix it for us."
The family are asking anyone with information on the incident to come forward.
