On December 21, I got to participate in a touching, yet unfortunate event. National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. A group that I work with in Toledo, 1Matters, held the event downtown at a local Episcopal Church. (On a side note, it was a beautiful, old church with wood, stained glass, and a massive pipe organ.) 
I say touching, because the purpose of the event was to hold a memorial to recognize all the homeless that had died during the year. The unfortunate part is that we had to hold this event. Not because people had died, but because homeless people had died, and therefore the best they got from the community was a line in the local newspaper that read:
“A homeless man died yesterday…”
Imagine if you died, and you were able to attend your own funeral. Except there wasn’t a funeral. There was no funeral, no grave stone, no notice in the paper to let others know you had passed away, and no one showed up. That happened to probably ten people in Toledo this year, and those are the ones we know of. Instead of an obituary, these were some of their headlines.
A homeless man was found floating in the Maumee river…
A pregnant woman was strangled in an abandoned alley downtown…
A mother of five was murdered while she slept in her car on the street…
I can’t fathom what those people went through, and I really can only imagine what others who don’t have a home go through this time of year when the weather turns bad. I feel blessed every day. This memorial service was a good reminder that when it comes right down to it, every life matters. Every person we say hi to, smile at, or do something for is important. Especially at this time of year more than any other time.
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