by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Dec. 21 is the first day of winter and the shortest day of the year. It’s also the day hundreds of cities and towns in America hold memorial services for people who might be forgotten were it not for their attention – the homeless who lived in each community and died in the past year.
Monday about 50 people gathered at Hemming Plaza for Jacksonville’s 8th annual service. With Rev. Deacon Stan Grenn of Resurrection Catholic Church presiding, those in attendance heard songs, said prayers and lit candles in memory of those who passed away.
“The City keeps track of people who die indigent,” said Grenn. Having no family to claim them after their death, they are cremated without any kind of memorial service. Grenn said that’s the last rite for about 200 people each year.
He also said the tradition began in 2001 with a service at the Sulzbacher Center in memory of a man who had been a client there and had died on Good Friday. The memorial has been held each year since at Hemming Plaza.
Vocalist and violinist Marcia Winnard, who attends each year to provide music for the remembrance, said “This is our gift to the homeless who have died and to the homeless who have lost loved ones this year. These people don’t have a tombstone or even a service. Everyone deserves to know someone cared about them. But for the grace of God there go any of us.”
After Grenn delivered a memorial liturgy, Winnard picked up her violin and as the strains of “Amazing Grace” filled the air, Doug Ganson, a Downtown business owner and the chair of the Emergency Services and Homeless Coalition, distributed candles to those gathered in the plaza.
“This is a stark reminder of the difficulties and hardships of living on the street,” he said. “It’s something we need to keep front and center until it isn’t an issue any more. I don’t know if that day will ever come but until it does, we will be here every year.”
Doug Ganson distributed candles to the mourners at the ceremony.
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