ROADWAY HILLSIDE MEMORIAL CROSSES

  

 As I drive down this desolate road, one more time, I see an all too familiar and re-occurring site. It is almost dark, it is cold and raining and I instantly know what it is. There it is, a silouette in the distance, merging closer, yet closer. There it stands now, very still. I see it clearly, so barren, so self explanatory, so lifeless. The "vision" says it all.

  

Again, I know all too well what I must do as I start to pray. I start my prayer chant of acknowledging that this is where a human being went from life to death in an instant. I am reminded again just how frail and uncertain Life is.

 

 So now I pray. I pray this same old prayer that I pray when driving down the highway and happening upon a cross; but wait, tonight there are three brand new crosses looming in the shadows ahead.

  

I am immediately jolted awake into consciousness and as the reality sinks in, I sit up straighter in the car seat. I won't drive home down this road tonight with my usual blank stare, for this section of road has just become "my prayer ground".

  

I know my place, my mantra. I will pray for the loved ones whom have lost their mother, sister, brother, friend. This is all I can do but at least it is something. Tonight, I see a very small cross fixed in the middle of two larger ones. Tonight, Am I praying for a small child whom was taken all too soon and for no reason?

  

As I take that first deep breath in and take my prayer stance with my hands pointed upwards, I notice that this time my response is more than a disconnect and just going through the required motions of the prayer ritual. This time, I am weeping and at first I am not sure why. Am I weeping because I am wondering if this was the result of an accident that I may have saw on the local news station last week?

  

No, I am weeping because it has just occurred to me that if every time that I drive by one of these memorial sites fixed on a roadway hillside and Pray, then there must be others who are praying as they drive by these same memorial sites as well. The realization of the magnitude of "a community of prayer" is overwhelming to me.

 

How comforting to know that these people will never be forgotten. These people whom were just going about their busy day when death took them so suddenly. It makes you question yourself, your place in time, your mortality. To not do so, would be to not be human.

 

 With the realization ever present in my mind, I am comforted to know there are many people praying for these lost loved ones every minute of every day, when they did not even know them ! How profound that we all come together in silent prayer each day, at the same time, in different corners of the world; in this case to grieve and to remember a loved one.

  

It would be beyond all reason and compassion for another fellow human being if these hillside memorial crosses were to be forced by the city into being dismantled after a specified time period. These memorials represent much more than just a reminder or a reflection. Roadside memorials are a bold statement to all who care to think deeply, that we are not above reprive or invincible. These "shrines" were once real people whom were loved by a whole village, and they represent the deep seeded emotions of the realization that their loved one(s) passed from life to death in this very spot at that exact moment. It is almost like you can "see" the transition. The visualization of life/death, life/death, is now engrained in my vision forever.

 

 Now, as I drive by these new hillside crosses, I cannot help but rejoice in a prayer of my own as I give thanks to those who acknowledge these lost souls and pray for us all in order to gain a place in the afterlife. I am also reminded of the many lost souls that are still wandering around lost in this life.

 

I will continue to recite my loving prayer of compassion to all of those whom have lost a loved one in this way. Let it be a comfort to you that people do care, your neighbors do pray for you and let the power of our ongoing community prayer comfort you in your days to come as you are learning to go on from here without your loved one(s).

 

 As for those good souls who are spreading their prayers throughout our great city, we pray for you today as well. You are truly "prayer soldiers" for helping to unite all of humanity in prayer. It is also a realization that you would pray for my family if the roadside memorial would ever bear my name.

 

written by: Kimberly Willison Calgary, Alberta, Canada