Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

The remembered dead

Spring Street memorials in La Mesa

The expanded Gateside Memorial now includes a red tinsel heart and a bandana.
The expanded Gateside Memorial now includes a red tinsel heart and a bandana.

The Rodeway Inn at the intersection of Spring and Gateside in south La Mesa burned in 2015. But its freestanding roadside sign still advertises the “new management, complimentary breakfast, and free WiFi” at the “home away from home” — a memorial to what once filled the vacant lot. I tell my kids they should rearrange the removable letters into something eye-catching like “MEMENTO MORI – REPENT BEFORE YAHWEH.” Good clean fun.

Memento mori – remember death. March 29 was Good Friday; the day’s Psalm included the lament, “I am forgotten like the unremembered dead.” That put me in mind of another memorial on the Rodeway site, one I’d first spotted a year ago. Someone had planted a flowered cross at the corner formed by two keystone walls and surrounded it with a length of decorative fence. Solar-powered lights dotted the spot, as did devotional candles, one of them bearing the handwritten inscription “Grimz Goofy Grizz.” A Mexican flag lay off to one side; the cross was topped by a sun-faded Padres cap, still bearing its New Era Snapback sticker.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The hat had faded further by June, but someone had hung the flag from the wall. Whoever was dead was not unremembered; someone was tending to the memorial. More than one someone: when I visited last week, I found messages in multiple hands and on multiple surfaces: “Grimz1 Always Big Rabbit Loc5.” “Love you homeboy.” “Rest in peace.” “Love Big Dogg miss you — Big Homie Grimz was here.” The keystone corner had become an alcove, complete with concrete columns. A spent shotgun shell rested nearby.

Blooming cross at Alan Medawar memorial

Three more blooming crosses — gorgeous life erupting from the dead wood of a deadly tree — rise from an embankment further south, where the 94 exit ramp circles crazily toward Spring. “RIP Alan Medawar, March 2, 2016” is painted on the back of the largest. Medawar was a 32-year-old General Atomics employee living in Spring Valley. The Union-Tribune report on his death says he was “speeding eastbound” when he hit a guard rail and flipped down the embankment. He died at the scene; the 29-year-old woman in the passenger seat suffered a cut lip.

An Alicia Flores has written posts for Medawar on Legacy.com. December 21, 2016: “I love you.” February 13, 2017: “On March 2, 2016, we looked into each other’s eyes and nothing felt happier then all of a sudden the Lord took my love away in the blink of an eye.” September 8, 2017: “I feel like it was yesterday. I feel like running to you. I feel hopeless. I miss you my love.” On the second anniversary of his death, someone named Adan posted, “Gone but never forgotten, love you habibi.”

POW/MIA memorial at University and Spring St.

A mile and a half north on Spring stands the Heartland Youth for Decency War Memorial, its cross topped with a helmet instead of ballcap. The memorial was dedicated on Flag Day 1970, and rededicated on Flag Day 2014. Beside it, an empty black tile throne honors military POW/MIAs. The words “Lest we forget” are sunk into the surrounding concrete.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Bringing Order to the Christmas Chaos

There is a sense of grandeur in Messiah that period performance mavens miss.
The expanded Gateside Memorial now includes a red tinsel heart and a bandana.
The expanded Gateside Memorial now includes a red tinsel heart and a bandana.

The Rodeway Inn at the intersection of Spring and Gateside in south La Mesa burned in 2015. But its freestanding roadside sign still advertises the “new management, complimentary breakfast, and free WiFi” at the “home away from home” — a memorial to what once filled the vacant lot. I tell my kids they should rearrange the removable letters into something eye-catching like “MEMENTO MORI – REPENT BEFORE YAHWEH.” Good clean fun.

Memento mori – remember death. March 29 was Good Friday; the day’s Psalm included the lament, “I am forgotten like the unremembered dead.” That put me in mind of another memorial on the Rodeway site, one I’d first spotted a year ago. Someone had planted a flowered cross at the corner formed by two keystone walls and surrounded it with a length of decorative fence. Solar-powered lights dotted the spot, as did devotional candles, one of them bearing the handwritten inscription “Grimz Goofy Grizz.” A Mexican flag lay off to one side; the cross was topped by a sun-faded Padres cap, still bearing its New Era Snapback sticker.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The hat had faded further by June, but someone had hung the flag from the wall. Whoever was dead was not unremembered; someone was tending to the memorial. More than one someone: when I visited last week, I found messages in multiple hands and on multiple surfaces: “Grimz1 Always Big Rabbit Loc5.” “Love you homeboy.” “Rest in peace.” “Love Big Dogg miss you — Big Homie Grimz was here.” The keystone corner had become an alcove, complete with concrete columns. A spent shotgun shell rested nearby.

Blooming cross at Alan Medawar memorial

Three more blooming crosses — gorgeous life erupting from the dead wood of a deadly tree — rise from an embankment further south, where the 94 exit ramp circles crazily toward Spring. “RIP Alan Medawar, March 2, 2016” is painted on the back of the largest. Medawar was a 32-year-old General Atomics employee living in Spring Valley. The Union-Tribune report on his death says he was “speeding eastbound” when he hit a guard rail and flipped down the embankment. He died at the scene; the 29-year-old woman in the passenger seat suffered a cut lip.

An Alicia Flores has written posts for Medawar on Legacy.com. December 21, 2016: “I love you.” February 13, 2017: “On March 2, 2016, we looked into each other’s eyes and nothing felt happier then all of a sudden the Lord took my love away in the blink of an eye.” September 8, 2017: “I feel like it was yesterday. I feel like running to you. I feel hopeless. I miss you my love.” On the second anniversary of his death, someone named Adan posted, “Gone but never forgotten, love you habibi.”

POW/MIA memorial at University and Spring St.

A mile and a half north on Spring stands the Heartland Youth for Decency War Memorial, its cross topped with a helmet instead of ballcap. The memorial was dedicated on Flag Day 1970, and rededicated on Flag Day 2014. Beside it, an empty black tile throne honors military POW/MIAs. The words “Lest we forget” are sunk into the surrounding concrete.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

East San Diego County has only one bike lane

So you can get out of town – from Santee to Tierrasanta
Next Article

Born & Raised offers a less decadent Holiday Punch

Cognac serves to lighten the mood
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader