The Presidio Flower Memorial

3/08
In my daily sojourns into the Presidio National park, I observe how nature moves through the city.

The funny thing about this two year long walking tale is that it is about humans that I do not know and mostly have never seen. I only find their leavings.

The tale begins on the last day of a young runner’s life.

A detective intercepted me – asking questions about an unidentified young woman who was hit and left for dead on Washington Blvd

The next day’s walk found fresh flower bouquets and grief notes tied to a fence.

A week later, a man in black running gear, drenched in sweat from many cathartic miles, knelt silently at this spot. I walked by in fear of disturbing him. He seemed to be weeping.

The next year was a succession of fresh flower leavings. The spot became an ephemeral memorial to the loss. As soon as the flowers wilted, they were replaced.

As time passed, the mourners tried potted plants – in some heroic effort to keep her memory from wilting. They even dared to plant them in the Presidio soil around the spot. But the flowers were soon unearthed.

Two years later, the fresh flowers gush only intermittently –like a seasonal spring. Recently, I saw 4 fresh bouquets all in sunset colors on my walk but on the return trip they had been swept away

Flowers seem such an appropriate memorial to a young woman cut down - the sunny and fallen Ashlyn Dyer. I think of the black-clad sweaty, sad knight, and the driver – that unfortunate driver - that paid poor attention at the wrong micro-second.

This flower memorial makes me a more mindful driver – because I know in an instant, I could be any one of the players in this human drama.