Some things flourish. Others die. Within the Warwick City Park is a shrine that inverts the equation. It first appeared roughly twelve years ago as an on-the-site memorial to a teenaged girl who died after being flung from a truck. I can’t remember the details, but I believe alcohol was involved. Warwick is small enough for someone to have called me on the very night that it happened. Neither of us knew the girl.
The shrine was initially small. Over the last two years it’s gotten huge. Concerned that the park authorities might dismantle it, I decided to take pictures. While doing so, I was surprised to discover that it’s no longer single-death shrine, and appears to have become an all purpose memorial to the recently dead.
