Stealing a symbol of love and grief
Printer-Friendly
Email this Letter
Post a Comment (0)
I lost my 24-year-old son in a car accident in March 2006. He was a precious gift that was snatched away before I realized how great it really was. Faith is the only thing that keeps you connected to this earth. I've learned that the loss of a child is a sorrow so deep that it has no words, thus the reason my family and I continue to be devastated.
So you find yourself searching for ways to memorize them and do anything to help in your grief. Our family took a lot of thought and care into making a cross and a sign in the shape of a sun with his name on it and placed it at the crash site. It was our way of letting him know how very much we missed him, how badly we hurt. It was simple tokens of love yet meant so much.
I visited the crash site of my son recently, as I do at times, and found that someone had pulled the cross and the sun up out of the ground and they were no where to be found. My heart sank. All that was left was a bouquet of flowers lying on the ground. I felt like I had been violated. After checking around, it was determined that this was a random, vile act by someone without a heart.
How could anyone remove something so precious left by a loved one? I am very hurt over this theft, but I feel more sadness for the person or persons who stole them, perhaps pity. What would one do with a cross with my son’s name on it? What type of person benefits from such an inhumane act?
To you who did this, did you think it was funny and a joke of some sort? I can only hope that one day you will have regrets about this. I pray for you as well. You will have to carry the sad knowledge of what you did inside you. I now wonder what is happening to the moral fabric of our country. The bonds that united people in caring ways seems to be unraveling. The human connection that we take for granted is becoming frayed and torn. I have to wonder where we are headed as a nation when stealing a symbol of someone who has died becomes entertainment.
So many now do not even have the decency to pull over when a funeral precession comes through. They are in such a hurry to get where they are going they have lost their sense of humanity and compassion. We should all pull over and wait until the very last car goes through out of RESPECT. Another word that seems to have gotten lost in our society.
And the next time you see a cross along a highway, pray for them, think of the families left behind. Please don’t steal from them. Because you never know when it is YOU who may be the one placing a cross in memory of someone you love. Don’t think that it couldn’t happen to you. I used to think that.
Vicki Townsend, Winchester
You must be logged in to post a comment.