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Not Forget: A time to recall what's lost
Journal Photo by Lauren Carroll
Vigils for Healing wants people who lost loved ones to know they aren't alone.
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Published: November 15, 2009
At first, it didn't make sense. Why hold a vigil on a Friday in mid-November?
Teresa Ann Johnson disappeared Sept. 16, 1997, and her body was found 16 days later near the railroad tracks running alongside Old Walkertown Road.
Friday wasn't the date of her death, nor was it a milestone year -- the 5th or 10th anniversary -- or Johnson's birthday. The field where about 50 people gathered to remember her wasn't exactly where she was found 12 years ago. That was a little farther away; houses have been built on that ground.
So why Friday?
The answer came at the end of the 30-minute vigil after organizers placed a light blue prayer shawl around the shoulders of Carol Cousar, Johnson's mother. Tears had welled up in her eyes, but she smiled ever so slightly as she gently brushed her shawl with her fingers.
It was just time.
"They say time heals, but each year it seems to get harder and harder," Cousar said.
Stand against violence
If they bothered to look, drivers zipping by late Friday afternoon might have wondered what was happening. The sun was setting rapidly, leaving the sky a collage of purple, red and orange. A handful of people were busy fussing with folding tables and chairs, arranging a portrait of Teresa Johnson just so and setting up candles.
Not too long ago, the vigils were more of a happening. TV crews and local dignitaries showed up with greater frequency, especially when the victim being remembered carried a higher profile or the murder was more recent.
"It's kind of trickled off some now," said state Rep. Larry Womble, who makes it a point to attend the vigils whenever possible. "I kind of feel like I owe it to the families to show we care and we remember."
Outside her immediate family, Johnson, 35, wasn't particularly well known. Her disappearance generated just a few short newspaper stories. Police said she wasn't reported missing right away.
The badly beaten body of a woman had been found in a field. The person who found her didn't call police until the next day, when he went back a second time to make sure that what he'd seen was indeed a body. Her killer has never been caught.
None of that mattered to those who came to remember Johnson and support her family, though. The vigil, just as every one held since the group Vigils for Healing was formed in 2006, was about compassion and comfort.
"To say or do nothing is almost to condone violence," said Tracey Maxwell, one of the group's organizers. "We have to be active, to do something that says we stand against violence and behind those left behind."
Small gestures, big impact
The beauty of these vigils is in their simplicity. Attendees form a tight semicircle around a victim's family, a community embrace. A short non-denominational service is held, and passages from Scripture are read.
Anyone who wishes to speak is afforded the opportunity. A bell is rung in memory of murder victims and a handmade prayer shawl is presented.
Sometimes, water, wine and oil are poured on the spot where a murder took place.
"We want to symbolically reclaim that ground," Maxwell said. "We won't let this violent act stand as the last community event of note on a particular place. We want to take the ground back for God's vision of peace."
Friday evening, Johnson's niece sang a spiritual song in memory of her aunt. A cousin talked about a trusting woman who loved red velvet cake and to dress up. A mother who said her son was murdered a few years ago -- a stranger -- stood to tell Cousar that she was loved and supported.
Those small gestures take on enormous importance to the survivors -- even when they take place on a random Friday 12 years later.
"It's hard to put into words," Cousar said. "It just means so much to have these people take their time to remember my daughter. I really appreciate it."
ssexton@wsjournal.com | 727-7481
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