SANDY, Utah (ABC 4 News) - It is hard to walk among the rows of American flags and not shed a tear.
For ten years now, the Healing Field in Sandy has remembered those killed on September 11th.
Other cities have also developed their own Healing Field with the help of the Colonial Flag Foundation. It is now an important part of remembrances nationwide.
All thanks to our own Paul Swenson.
The field of flags was his idea, his vision. He wanted to replace the image of piled rubble from that day with flags. We have the memorial today because he willed it into existence.
Thank you, Paul.
The first Healing Field appeared on the lawns south of Sandy City Hall on the 1st anniversary of the attack.
Every year I’ve stopped by. Sometimes I’m there as a reporter, other times as just a solitary observer. I walk and look and think and remember.
It is sobering to take in the field of flags as a whole and realize the enormity of the loss of human life.
Down among the rows of flags, I’m struck by the individual losses. Each flag represents on of the 3,000 people who died on that day in 2001. In more recent years, flags have been added for soldiers killed in the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One flag equals a person who left behind a family, friends and dreams unrealized.
Over the years, we’ve gotten to know a few, but largely they remain anonymous.
I try to imagine them. I try to understand how their death sent ripples through so many other lives. That is usually when a tear comes along with a silent prayer for those of left to carry on.
There’s no charge to see the Healing Field. The Foundation does take donations to buy the flags that are posted.
Click here for more on that.
Even so, there is no hidden, commercial agenda in the display, just Paul Swenson’s desire to remember and honor those lost ten years ago.
I hope to see you at this year’s Healing Field.
