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Mon. Jul 28, 2003

In Memory of Alice

In Memory of Alice – She’d said, “If somebody went to all the trouble to bring the Olympics to Atlanta, the least I can do is go.” So she took her daughter to Centennial Park as part of her 14th birthday celebration.

It was the final night they would have together (video interview with her daughter).

Today, she is remembered by people who never knew her, like Staff Sgt. Gordon Spears: “Seven years ago in Centennial Olympic Park, a bomb killed a woman whom Gordon Spears never met but still remembers.”

“ ‘I looked at her and we made eye contact,’ Spears said Sunday. ‘I remember she was standing next to the statue, just enjoying the reggae music.’ Spears, a member of a National Guard unit assigned to the Atlanta Olympics, never spoke with Alice Hawthorne.”

“The bomb, weighing more than 40 pounds, exploded at 1:20 a.m. on July 27, 1996 [...] On every July 27 since, except for one when he was serving in Bosnia, Spears has come back to the park [...] He places a single red rose and plants a small American flag near where Hawthorne died.”

Today I’m 44 years old, and seven years ago yesterday, Alice Hawthorne was the same age. I like to think I’ve got a long full life ahead of me. But Alice’s was cut short with no warning that day, for no reason, other than the random act of a madman.

Another reminder, if you need one, that tomorrow is guaranteed to no one.