Just wondering . . . . . . .

I have a question.  I know everyone has seen from time to time a roadside memorial where someone lost their life.  Sometimes they put up a cross, flowers, maybe something with the loved one’s name.  On my way to work each morning I pass at least three of these.  I find it a little odd and maybe just a little morbid.

Most of the ones we see along the highways are from a traffic accident.  I can sort of understand the initial placement of the tribute.  Its fresh, raw, and very real. Maybe the loved ones want to warn others of the danger.  Maybe there are skid marks and other indications of an accident and they want people to know “Yes someone lost their life here.”

The three that I pass every morning have been there for years.  One is on Jacksboro Highway just outside of Azle as I drive into Fort Worth.  That highway is being revamped and widened, yet somehow the two crosses are still there and during the summer someone mows around them.  The crossover where these teenagers were killed isn’t even there any more.  There is another one further out towards my home that has crosses and an iron bench to sit on. During the summer, maybe a birthday, someone puts out balloons.  This is actually very close to someone’s driveway.

I just don’t understand why you would want to commemorate someone’s life in that manner.  At the place where they lost their life.  I don’t think I could find comfort returning over and over to the scene of where my loved one lost their life.

I enjoy going to the cemetery.  I find comfort in visiting my father’s, my grandparents’, and even my great grandparents’ last resting place.  They are all together in the same place.  I know they aren’t actually there.  But for whatever reason I find comfort in the peacefulness of a cemetery. 

I know in today’s economy not everyone has the luxury of burying their loved ones in a cemetery that they can visit.  So many are cremated.  But why wouldn’t you make some kind of small memorial in your home for them.  Why wouldn’t you visit places that bring back happy memories of them.  I have a friend that lost a loved one this year.  She built a deck onto her house and placed a memorial marker in remembrance of her friend.  What a wonderful tribute!!  Now she can sit outside on her deck, enjoy a beverage, and remember her friend.

Losing someone in such a tragedy is terrible.  I just don’t understand the fixation on the scene of the accident.  I hope that I never do.