Last week Marie and I drove into Lac-Mégantic to visit the memorial set up in Sainte-Agnes church and to reconnect with the town. We had been reluctant to go back and thought it was time to accept the loss and destruction we would have to eventually face. It was a beautiful day and except for the unpleasant smell from the burned homes, vehicles and businesses picked up by the breeze coming in from the lake everything seemed normal. We parked at the top of Laval street and walked down the hill parallel to the tracks that carried that deadly load the night of July 6th and got a feel of the steepness of the hill. I could see how easy it had been for the line of runaway cars to pick up speed and crash into the town, and into the Musi-Cafe where so many died. What lay beyond the high fence that had been erected around the red zone was a scene I could not have imagined before this tragedy. Police patrolled everywhere and the sound of the machines still digging through the remains could be heard now and then. The church faced the centre of town and a constant flow of people were standing quietly gazing towards the scene of destruction, framed by the brown, charred and leafless trees and piles of unrecognizable rubble. From different vantage points you could see the twisted, blackened remains of the 72 missiles of death that had carried their horrendous load, spilled and tossed like toys. Inside the church we added our condolences, and a card my sister Lyn had sent, to the thousands of others and said a prayer for those lost. It was hard to look at the faces of those mostly young people whose lives had been snuffed out by one careless act, now smiling innocently from among flowers and colourful cards. We were interviewed outside on the lawn by a reporter from the Globe and Mail, one of dozens who had flocked to the town immediately afterwards. Yet now as I write, except for debates and decisions being discussed behind closed boardroom doors in Ottawa and elsewhere, the town is not the frenzy of cameras and media it was. Hopefully we won't be forgotten like yesterdays news and that real changes will be made in the railway industry soon in the memory of Lac-Mégantic. Many months of recovery still lie ahead for this town but people here are strong and getting on with life. It is a close knit community that will pull through and one day be a better place to live. No one here though will ever forget the night of July 6.
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