The Day After. Several Times Removed.

[captainsblog]

The shock has passed, but the pain has yet to wear off.  Five days after the biggest and broadest tragedy this region has ever seen, thoughts and efforts began in earnest to honor, and grieve, and where possible bury, the dead from last Friday's crash.

Closest to our home, and our hearts, was the memorial service this afternoon for Cantor Susan Wehle.  I drove by the temple at what must have been the time for Kaddish, and cars spilled onto the grass of the parking lot and even filled that of the rather scary-looking fundie Presbyterian sanctuary across Indian Trail Road from them.

Eleanor met several people today who'd been touched by the events of recent days. One was a friend of Susan's, who managed to get to the service. More than thirty friends and fellow clergy eulogized her, including our own Pastor Gail, who'd been comforted by Susan's own consoling words in the face of death barely a month before.

Another was a sheriff's department employee, on her first significant shopping trip to Wegmans since the disaster.With young kids in the house who didn't understand why Mom couldn't keep the fridge and snack drawer filled.  Well, Mom was working through the wreckage, and matching remains to  names, and memory to tragedy. At first, they couldn't figure out what the little metal parts were, scattered through the scene. They were keys- not home or car, but saxophone and flute- from the members of Chuck Mangione's band who'd been on their way to a show the next night at Kleinhans.

She also found a purse- completely intact. With a full set of Pokemon cards inside it.

She didn't know that victim's name any more than Eleanor learned her name. Neither mattered. The lives had been scattered, and the good people of this county cleaned them up for the sake of their friends and loved ones.  As the customer herself said, "We brought them all home."

Eleanor ended that conversation by hugging the woman. Such things are far more prevalent these days, and yet still in short supply.

Comments

[baseballchica03.livejournal.com]

Not to make things even sadder, but I thought you ought to know that Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church are coming to Buffalo on Sunday to protest out at a memorial service in Clarence in the morning (apparently the pilot was gay) as well as downtown at St. Joseph's in the afternoon at a service for Allison DeForges (a human rights activist). W. T. F. Sunday AM we're doing a family thing for my parents' birthdays, but I may just have to go down there in the afternoon out of principle.

You know, there are very few people in the world that I actually, literally hate. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt when I can. Lots of people hated Bush, but I think he was just sad and misguided. But Phelps? Well, there's a special place in hell for him.

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

I have always felt esp. for first responders and rescue workers. Theirs is a job that I am simply not strong enough to do, but must be done. God bless them.