Roadside Shrines- Megan Fricke

As we drove to and from Washington, D.C., I kept my eyes peeled for roadside memorials and shrines. I only saw 2 roadside shrines.  They were offset from the road, on a hill, and they both had 3 crosses, similar to the religious image of Jesus' cross.  Perhaps they were honoring a religious event or the death of a citizen who was Christian.  Other than that, however, I did not see any other roadside shrines or memorials.

However, I thought that I would talk about a roadside shrine that has personal connections to my family and me.  A few years ago, one of my cousins was killed in a car accident as her car rolled off of the road into a ditch, instantly killing her and her friend.  Her family and the family of her friend built a wooden cross to mark the place of the death and continuously drive by the site, adorning the cross with flowers and notes.  As Everett describes in her book Roadside Crosses in Contemporary Memorial Culture, many of these crosses and shrines serve as a reminder of the loss of a life and serve as warning to other drivers.  MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) often enact shrines in honor of those who lost their lives due to drunk drivers and to fully demonstrate to the public just how prominent the problem of drunk driving is.  Everett applauds roadside shrines as they have a "communicative power" as they recognize the loss of "ordinary lives and memories"(Everett 81).  Everett also discovered that roadside shrines often are a family's attempt at closure, using the construction and upkeep of a memorial as "grief-work" (Everett 100).  I think that that is what my family attempted to do, as they remember and cherish the life of the daughter they lost.