Katie Campanella

A pink-colored cross that simply reads: "Katie"...

I discovered this recently, about 2 weekends ago (I wanna say Oct 15th) whilst driving home with my boyfriend after he was done at work. He was driving and I was looking out the window on 170SB when I saw a reddish looking cross...I could barely make out any other details...

Sean snapped these pictures of the memorial on his ride home from class today...thank you, Sean!

It wasn't difficult to find the story behind this descanso on interstate 170 Southbound near St. Charles Rock Road because it happened so recently. A very terrible tragedy. Here are some links:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_daf30dd0-f279-11e0-a685-001a4bcf6878.html

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_694949d2-f667-11e0-9714-0019bb30f31a.html

11 year old Katie Campanella died at the scene of the accident. Her sister, Beth, managed to survive in critical condition with many broken bones.


Photo source: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_694949d2-f667-11e0-9714-0019bb30f31a.html


Photos courtesy S. Hunter.

KMOV story: http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Hazelwood-girl-killed-after-sisters-car-spins-out-of-control-on-I-170-131419118.html



Rest in peace, Katie.

Long time no post.

Found this one over the summer in front of a Phillips 66 Gas Station on Elm Street.

No name, no date, nothing... just a small tribute to someone who died at this street corner. A descansolito, if you will.

Officer Scott Armstrong

http://www.odmp.org/officer/17542-patrolman-scott-morgan-armstrong

"Patrolman Scott Armstrong was killed when his patrol car was struck head-on by a vehicle being driven the wrong way on I-370, near I-270. The driver of the wrong way vehicle, who was drunk at the time, was also killed in the incident.



Patrolman Armstrong had served with the Bridgeton Police Department for 2 years and had previously served with the Oak Harbor, Washington, Police Department, and Sunset Hills, Missouri, Police Department, for a total of 3 years. He is survived by his son, parents, sister, brother-in-law, and girlfriend."

Another descanso on highway 370. I heard from my boss at work that this guy died in a head on collision with another office who was off duty returning home from celebrating something? Not sure if that's true or not or if they just didn't want to mention that in any news article. Hmm. Still, really sad and unfortunate that he had to die this way. Alcohol and driving do NOT mix. RIP.

"We Live" by Superchick

Today I was sitting at work listening to Pandora Radio when a song by Superchic[k] came on my playlist. I was surprised when I heard the lyrics to the opening verse, especially because I had just shot a photo of a newly-discovered descanso on my workbreak.

"There's a cross on the side of the road
Where a mother lost a son
How could she know that the morning he left
Would be the last time she'd trade with him for a little more time
So she could say she loved him one last time
And hold him tight
But with life we never know
When we're coming up to the end of the road
So what do we do then
With tragedy around the bend?

We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cuz the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love"

Great song!


Here's the embedded video if you want to watch it:

J.P. Rosciglione

You can see the white cross better in this Google Earth image. Sorry for my terrible photo!

This was one of the first memorials I noticed on my morning commute to St. Charles on I-370W. It took me a while before I was able to make out the name on the memorial, and finally I thought to snap a quick pic whilst driving by since the idea of pulling over on the side of 370 gives me the heeby jeebies!! The memorial itself is a simple white cross with his name on the horizontal portion and the word "Colts" written on the top part with their horseshoe logo. Apparently the victim was a fan of Indianapolis Colts football.

This memorial is for John "J.P." Rosciglione. He was struck by a drunk driver while on his way home from work on February 5th, 2005, westbound on 370 near the Mills Mall exit. He was headed to a friends house to play cards when another driver struck the back of his Nissan Pathfinder, causing J.P.'s car to roll over and impact the median. Poor J.P. was ejected from the car and landed on the other side of the highway where he was hit by a minivan and a tractor trailer heading eastbound. I pray that he died quickly and with minimal pain...

Photo source: www.bpusastl.org/images/Newsletters/Webcopies/BPStL_J-F_06.pdf

I see his memorial every single day on my way to work now. I began to wonder who he was and what sort of person he was like.... so I read some news stories online. In one such article, he was described as having a "big heart" by his family. His father, Jay Rosciglione said, "J.P. was the son every father dreams of having. His sister said he was "the life of the party." How tragic that he had to perish like this...reminds me of the importance wearing a seat belt. Seems like most of the victims who are ejected from a vehicle are without seat belts. Of course airbags play a significant role in saving lives but perhaps due to the nature of J.P.'s accident, even the airbags couldn't save him. Seemed like it was an older vehicle and once airbags deploy, they cannot be redeployed as far as I know...Oh well, this is just speculation on my part, and not the purpose of my blog. But I definitely think of him everytime I drive past....

J.P.'s 1998 Nissan Pathfinder post-accident:

Truly terrible! And unfortunately the man responsible for this only got two years in prison after he fled the scene of the accident. If it weren't for witness testimony, the drunk driver might have gotten away with this!

New Story

An older one, so whole article isn't available but here's the gist of it:
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-9304367/Driver-in-fatal-crash-gets.html

J.P. is survived by his mother, father, sister, and other numerous family members. His family owns a bakery in St. Charles called Rosciglione Bakery and his father, Jay Rosciglione, was a power weight lifter. I am sure his family holds him in their hearts and treasures their memories of him dearly.

Rest in peace, J.P.

Kidnapped/murdered child?

A friend of mine saw this descanso recently in the city of St. Louis and he decided to take me to the spot so I could see it too. It's in a really bad neighborhood so I didn't get out of the car despite it being daylight. I snapped the photo quickly with my phone and he drove off.

This photo also begs the question: How does one make a descanso in the city? You rarely see white crosses on street sides.... and I have a feeling if there were, people could more easily deface or remove them versus say on an interstate where it's sort of dangerous to pull over even just to snap a photo (a whole separate post on that later!) It seems like photos of the deceased, some words written paper and taped to a telephone pole or tree, and stuffed animals in abundance are all common sights for a "city descanso." We saw another one like this but apparently the stuffed animals had since been removed/deteriorated/whatever and all that remained was a photo of the woman who was killed. But I couldn't really get a clear photo due to the photo being high up on a tree and partially obscured in darkness from the leaves and branches. But it seems like stuffed animals---maybe not just for kids---are a big part of the city memorials. I am not sure what happened to this little girl (or maybe she was a teen? or adult?) but there is a tiny white cross pinned to the side of the pole and one of the bears has signatures of friends and family all over. A crimestoppers yellow tape is wrapped around the top suggesting foul play. I don't think they've caught the criminal yet....it says call to leave tips.

Never forgotten.

Big shrine!

I love the rainbow colors on this cross! The center has a quote by Bob Marley.

Some artwork on the bottom of the white cross, likely done by friends or family.

"Never forgotten."

Looks like solar cell lights to illuminate the shrine at night. Neat idea.

Very moving plaque.

David Weinstein

Florissant man died Wednesday from injuries he sustained in a two-vehicle crash on Missouri Route 370 near St. Louis Mills mall the day before, according to the Missouri Highway Patrol.

David A. Weinstein, 29, died at DePaul Hospital. Weinstein was driving eastbound in Highway 370 about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday when another car turned in front of him near Taussig Avenue, causing both vehicles to overturn off the roadway.

Weinstein and the other driver were ejected from their vehicles. Neither was wearing a seat belt, according to the highway patrol.

The 41-year-old driver of the other car was seriously hurt.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_86348c92-7c4f-11e0-94e0-001a4bcf6878.html

Unknown Victim

This descanso was discovered today! I'd never noticed it before. It's right near the 370 on/off ramps in New Town/Elm Street.

It is a very old looking one...the letters and such are falling off, and I can't really discern a date or anything.

I think it used to read "Moore" but I am not entirely positive. (??) Any help identifying is appreciated! I am sure there is a story to be told....

The location of this cross makes it hard to stop to get a closer look--it would be too dangerous because of all of the on/off ramp traffic, so I had to snap a quick photo as I was driving by.

Makeshift memorial.

A wooden cross can be seen in front of the MotoMart gas station at the intersection of New Town Road and Fountain Lakes Blvd. (Area where I am working this summer, which is how I encountered this memorial.) Initially I just asked the clerk about what happened and he said the fellow who died was leaving the sport bar across the street, ran a red light, and collided with an oncoming vehicle. The passengers in the vehicle that struck Billyjack's were wearing their seatbelts (a father and young son??) and both survived, sustaining injuries. Billyjack died on the scene.

The caption on the t-shirt attached to the cross reads: "We will never forget your contagious smile."

He had a 5 year old son, Carter, pictured above. Billyjack is on the right.

This, like many accidents, was unnecessary! I am not sure if alcohol played any role in the accident, as I cannot find an official news story on it... but here are some more links if you are interested:

http://hosting-tributes-24674.tributes.com/show/Billyjack-Dorlaque-89390295

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp1u54js8HY

http://www.amymeyerottphotography.com/2010/09/warning-this-is-not-happy-post.html

Welcome to Los Descansos!

Welcome to my new blog!

Lately I have been wanting to start a page for all of the descansos aka roadside memorials I've been noticing lately. I just started to develop a budding interest in photographing these little shrines and crosses so I thought I'd create a blog to start with on blogger and if it gets bigger, I may buy a domain name, and spiff up the overall page design some more.

First of all: What is a descanso? It's a Spanish word meaning "to take a brief rest." Many years ago, when someone died, a group of family, friends, etc., would carry the coffin from the church to the final resting place for burial. The men who carried the coffin would periodically get tired if it was a longer journey, and they would stop briefly to relieve themselves of their temporary burden. Women dressed in black would follow in their footsteps, grieving all the way. Every time they stopped for a rest, the mourners would often times leave a small token behind to mark the spot where the coffin was set to rest--a planted flower--a small white cross on the ground--some type of token. These are the "descansos." Little tributes to the deceased. And we sometimes see them on the roadside--shrines, memorials, dedications to those who have lost their lives while en route to some destination away from home. A journey never completed.

These are not graves but rather markers to show where a person experienced their last moments of life.

The purpose of my blog is twofold--to celebrate the lives of those who died so tragically and away from home, and to remind us all that life is transient. Memento Mori. Remember you shall die.

Eventually, if my photoblog grows, I would like to set up some type of way to raise money to donate to nonprofit organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) or other such groups. That way we're not only recognizing those who have lost their lives, but also helping to prevent future lives from being needlessly lost by drunk drivers or other such ignorance.

I hope that you get something from my blog--if you are a relative or friend of the deceased, I hope you can find closure and peace, perhaps a feeling of hope that other lives can be saved from such tragedy, maybe even just a feeling of overall appreciation for the care and love evident in the creation of these little shrines. When I first starting looking at photos of descansos, I felt sadness. But the more I stopped to look, read, learn, research, and understand the lives of those who passed on, the more I realized that life is precious.

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, whatever, please do not hesitate to comment on any of my posts or if you want to comment privately, feel free to contact me via my Gmail profile.

- Kate