shrine

[asakiyume]

For two days early last week, it was hard to turn onto the long, uphill driveway to the jail because workers were repairing--replacing, it turned out--a utility pole right at the entrance. The day they finished and cleared off, this shrine appeared by the new pole:



I've seen roadside wreaths and flowers and crosses, but the mass of candles was new to me and moved me.

I asked the officer at the lobby desk if she knew the story of it.

"Yeah, last week we were doing our outer,"** she said, "and this car came really fast, so fast--and crashed into the telephone pole. It was a boy and a girl."

"Did they both die?" I asked.

"She did. He survived. She was young," she said.

It seems like the candles have been lit, too. I wonder if someone comes by to light them each night.

**outer = outer perimeter. I hadn't realized they do this but, duh, of course they would.

Comments

[queenoftheskies]

A beautiful memorial. But, such sadness....

[asakiyume]

Yes, both...

[sovay]

It seems like the candles have been lit, too. I wonder if someone comes by to light them each night.

How many days has it been?

[asakiyume]

It appeared on June 27.

[mallorys_camera]

Descanos!

I always get a little shiver when I see one.

[asakiyume]

I only just learned that word last night, poking around in preparation for the post. Yes, exactly!

[kore]

I used to see descansos by the side of the highways all the time in New Mexico, but didn't know what they were called. Now here in Seattle we have ghost bikes (but those get taken down by the city because they "look bad" and scare the tourists).

[asakiyume]

There was a ghost bike some years back in the next town over. They left it up for a while... but eventually took it down.

[amaebi]

Thanks-- I didn't know about those, though I saw some when we were in Seattle recently.

[osprey_archer]

That's beautiful and also really sad.

[asakiyume]

Yes, and yes.

[amaebi]

Oh, my, that's sad. :(

But nice that people notice and care and want to make a visual remembrance.

[asakiyume]

Agreed. I found out the name of the person who died--I can say a prayer for her that's more personal, now.

[cmcmck]

That's a very central European style of memorial.

[asakiyume]

Convergent customs!

[kore]

Those were all over the highways in NM. What a sad story.

[asakiyume]

It *is* sad.

[wayfaringwordhack]

Little roadside memorials dot the landscapes of France, usually along busier roads, and I always say a prayer for the family when I pass them. As time goes on, the faux flowers fade and become ragged, and I pray that the grief too has mellowed, as it were, because I know it has not disappeared.

[asakiyume]

I love the link you make here between the flowers fading and maybe, hopefully, the intensity of the grief fading a little too.