(Photo © Jonathan Maus)
Salem newspaper, the Statesman Journal has details about the memorial service planned for Tracey Sparling.
“Her family will hold the event Thursday afternoon at the First Church of the Nazarene. Invited guests will speak about Tracey and a short reception will be held afterward, family members said.”
The paper also has details about a memorial fund:
Memorial contributions can be made in Tracey Sparling’s name to fund West Salem High School yearbook activities or scholarships. Contributions can be made out to West Salem High School Business Office Bookkeeper, 2650 Orchard Heights Road NW, Salem.
Sparling was a graduate of South West Salem High’s class of 2006.
Read the full article here.
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Doesn\’t it seem kinda tacky to go to the memorial service of a person you didn\’t even know, just because she died using your preferred mode of transportation?
this post isn\’t an invitation to attend… I\’m just making people aware of the article in the Salem paper and the family\’s plans.
no one in particular-
That would be kind of tacky, but the point of the posting is to inform readers about the memorial service and memorial fund, and it in no way suggests that random cyclists should make a day trip to Salem to attend services. It is simply another piece in Jonathan\’s coverage of this accident.
Your comment, being unprovoked, is kind of tacky though.
Actually, it\’s probably tacky just pointing out that \’no one in particular\’ is being tacky. See, now I\’m being tacky for pointing it out as well.
pdxrocket: very tacky, oh great, now I\’ve done it! I\’m so tacky, oh no, I said it again.
I\’d just like to point out that she graduated from WEST Salem High School, not South Salem High School.
-To: no one in particular
I just wanted to say that traditionally… no one ever gets invited to a funeral or a memorial service. You go to pay your respects to the person… even if you didn\’t know them. You go for your own personal reasons. And in my opinion it\’s no one else\’s business, but yours. The only time you may not be able to go is if the service for the deceased is a private service. And no I don\’t think your question is tacky. I\’m sure there are a lot of other people with the same concern… people who may want to go, but who aren\’t sure if it\’s appropriate. As long as you\’re respectful of the family, the friends, and the deceased… I think it\’s appropriate to go. And it doesn\’t sound like you\’re asking simply because you share the same mode of transportation… as you put it… it sounds like you may be asking because you want someone to sort of give you the \”go ahead\”. Well, I say… Go. It doesn\’t matter if you didn\’t know her… you can pay your respects to a fallen cyclist… a girl who\’s life was cut short by a situation that all of us as cyclists have to endure on a daily basis. I would go if I could… and I didn\’t know her. And I wouldn\’t care what anyone else thought about it. In this situation… your reasons are your own.
I would suggest that it is very common and not at all unseemly for a person who was not personally acquainted with the deceased to attend a memorial service for the deceased if both that person and the deceased were members of a particular group or society – for example, fire fighters and police officers will travel great distances to attend the funeral of a fellow fire fighter or officer who was killed in the line of duty. I find it neither strange nor rude to consider attending the funeral of a fellow bicycle commuter.
Well said, Cecil. I agree completely.