The road in front

Yesterday a 34 year old woman was killed outside of my office building. She was a cyclist who, somehow, collided with a bus. She was dragged underneath and died.

The road was closed for hours - almost 6 hours by the last count. There were police, ambulance, press and all kinds of observers present. There were pylons, blankets, tarps and police tape. After several hours, they finally lift the bus and were able to free the woman's body.

I have travelled that same path on my bike many, many times as I biked to and from work and I know there but for the grace of God go I. It has been a dangerous bike season on the roads this year - several fatalities and too many accidents.

As I walked up the sidewalk to my building this morning I saw the pylons, blankets, tarps and tape were all gone. In fact if you didn't know about the accident, if you didn't know what had happened you would have had no idea that anything had happened. The road and sidewalk were both clear.

And then it hit me.

Shouldn't there be SOMETHING? ANYTHING? A young woman lost her life less than 18 hours earlier in front of the very spot I was standing on and the place was void of any recognition of that.

A thousand times a day in a thousand places in the world people die and it goes unmarked except by those who love them. And I get that and for the sake of the world turning, it's probably how it should be.

But for the next little while, as I enter and leave my building, I am going to spare a thought for that woman. And I'm going to hope those who love her know that just because there is no marker on the road means that people don't recognize the loss that particular piece of road represents.