In Remembrance…

Over the past several years as I have driven between Navarre and Mobile and then DeFuniak Springs and Mobile, I have passed by so many memorial crosses on the side of the Interstate. The first time I saw a bunch of small white crosses on the side of the highway was during a family vacation out West in the 1970’s when I was a kid. I asked my parents what the crosses meant and was saddened to find out that they represented fatalities on the highway. I remember one spot where there were at least eight crosses… Eight lives lost in one accident!

This past week as we drove to Mobile, and then Quincy, I thought of those memorials again. I also remembered other memorials in England and Ireland which I have seen. In just about every village in England, you would find a roadside memorial to the dead from World War One and World War Two. In Ireland, we passed by many such memorials like the one pictured above from a day trip out of Dingle. Only these Irish Memorials were honoring those who died trying to break free from th oppressive yoke of English rule in the early 1900’s.

What do all these roadside memorials represent? They represent lives lost… Family no longer with you… Tragedy… Grief and loss which far surpassed any single event which resulted in death.

Many of the roadside memorials in the US show signs of continuous remembrance. They may be flowers on the cross or sign… They may be other mementos like Teddy Bears and Candles… But what they show is a family’s grief… A grief as they remember the one they lost. In Ireland, they reflected a community’s grief, even two generations later.

Perhaps the most poignant memorial for me of all was in the village of Croughton, England. I served near the village at Royal Air Force Station Croughton from 1994-1997 with the US Air Force. It was my honor to conduct two Remembrance Sunday (Armistice Day) services there on the Sunday closest to our US Veterans Day. There is a war memorial in the churchyard at All Saints Parish Church (a Norman structure dating from the early 1100’s AD). On the memorial are inscribed 42 names. Most of those died in WW1. Listed are 42 names (many related by blood) out of a population of roughly 900. That is a significant loss from such a small village.

What do all these memorials have in common? They have the names of people who are longer with us. Names of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters who are missed and mourned by family. Regardless of the cause of death, they are no longer with us. Perhaps their pictures remain enshrined behind a glass frame on a wall. Regardless, they are missed by someone who loved them.

For this Padre, the sight of these memorials remind me how precious life is and how fleeting it can be. As my heart aches for those who have loved and lost… As I lift a silent prayer for the dead… I also pray for the living… May God bless and comfort those who mourn. And may God bring about the day when neither sorrow nor grief breaks hearts any more. And that God will, in the meantime, wipe away every tear from every eye.