Roadside Shrines- Pauline Marting

While driving to DC, I managed to see just a few roadside shrines through the rainy window at 7 in the morning. One that sticks out in my mind was one that I saw within an hour of Lexington; it was a wreath with blue, red and yellow flowers, standing upright on a post and placed by the side of the highway. I couldn't read the sign, as we were traveling too fast, but I believe that it was a memorial to a girl who must have lost her life in a car accident at that particular spot on the highway. I don't know why, but whenever I see a roadside shrine I always immediately jump to the conclusion that a girl has passed away, not a boy or even a group of people. I always imagine that the memorial commemorates a young girl. Perhaps this is my way of internalizing the memorial; I take it as a warning that that memorial could be made to me if I am careless on the road or simply at the wrong place in the wrong time. I find that I perceive shrines that are located at more dangerous points on the road serve just as much as warnings as memorials. For example, about ten minutes from my house there is a particularly tricky traffic circle that connects several main roads. Since I grew up driving around it, I know how many idiots are careless enough to swerve into the wrong lane without any notice, and so I am always cautious when entering or exiting this circle. There is a particularly dangerous sharp right turn to exit the circle by one of the two main roads, and here, over my Thanksgiving break, at 4 in the morning, a drunk driving accident occurred. The driver, a woman who admitted to being intoxicated while driving, walked away from the accident unharmed. The man in the backseat, however, 25-year-old Brian Horwich, was not so lucky. From what the police can tell, the car took the sharp turn at too high of a speed, and so the car went up on the meridian, where it crashed into a tree. For several weeks after the accident, tire marks were burned into the dirt leading up to the cracked trunk of the tree. People placed flowers at the foot of the tree, and a family member hung a Cleveland Cavaliers jersey, as Brian was a huge Cavs fan. This site will always serve as a warning more than a memorial to me, and I am always sure to slow down when approaching that curve, even more so than before the accident.

This spot memorializes the death of Brian Horwich