Any one who has suffered the tragic loss of a loved one knows the intense pain and sense of loss. If you have lost family or friends at sea and they were never recovered for a burial or memorial service, then you know the agony that wrenches deep inside. The pain of not knowing what happened to your loved ones is a feeling that etches deeply into the soul. Nothing can erase because nothing can take the place of knowing where your loved ones lie for eternity. It is a consequence of having a human heart. We bond with one another so strongly that our lives are governed by our feelings and our passions run into the core of our souls. The human condition dictates that we are driven to find the lost, to rescue the shipwrecked, to help the earthquake or flood victim....all so other families will not have to long just to know where a loved one lies....or whether the person is alive or dead.

Fishermen's Memorial Sanctuary at Yaquina Bay State Park
Newport, Oregon

Visit the Newport Fisherman's wives website.

The information below is excerpted from their website.


"Fishermen's Memorial Sanctuary at Yaquina Bay State Park
The Memorial is sited in Yaquina Bay State Park on the edge of the Pacific Ocean; near the place local fishermen go to observe the Yaquina Bay bar before they cross into the ocean. This memorial offers a tangible place to honor the memories of lost fishermen, while their families, friends and community learn to live without them.


**This is the inside of the open air sanctuary. Cephas and I spent some time there praying for the people lost at sea and their families. We took extensive photographs of this memorial, which will be uploaded to the internet in the near future.

"Ground was broken in Yaquina Bay State Park, in 1997, after eleven years of planning and fundraising. The Memorial Sanctuary was built in the State park, in a first of its kind partnership between Newport Fishermen’s Wives Inc., and Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.

This open air structure was built entirely with donations from the local community and the fishing community at large."

Continued from the Newport Fisherman Wives Website.

The Fishermens Memorial Service
"The Fishermen’s Memorial Service is held the third Saturday in March, at 3:30 P.M., in conjunction with Newport’s Annual Blessing of The Fleet. Newport Fishermen’s Wives and local clergy work together with US Coast Guard Station Yaquina Bay and Air Station North Bend to coordinate the day’s events. All are invited to attend this service intended to support the families of those lost."

The poem below is writtn in honor of all my loved ones who have left this world and to my ancestors, which is the bond that connects all the world together. I dedicate this to the families and loved ones of those "Lost At Sea".

Immortal Garden

Thoughts of my ancestors course through me
like the hot blood coursing through my veins .
The passion of their spirits rises up within me
till it is an unquenchable urge
that absorbs me into their very essence.

Time has no walls to hold their spirits bound
from the passion that wells within my heart.

Thoughts reel inside my mind
Thoughts without order or consequence...
only feelings, powerful feelings
My entire being trembles as I remember
the people who created the path I now walk.

My ancestors footsteps create echoes
that resonate inside me like some invisible
signal calling from a distant place within me.
Memories haunt my dreams in a sleep that has no waking

Passions rise up from places long forgotten
yet strangely remembered
in some intangible place within my soul,
the place where the unformed resides.
Here, those passions blossom like irises
on a warm spring day then water my soul
that thirsts for the familiar and the distant to unite
Once again in the place where time steps aside
and the dance resumes outside the choreography
Of rules written for mortal beings.

The sound of the drums teleport my soul back through time,
a time long ago yet near to my spirit.
The beating of the drums awakened me to memories
That stir a longing deep within my soul to return
To that place of my ancestors,
To hear their chanting and singing,
To sing the prayers and dance the dances of spirit
To walk endlessly along the path beside them,
The people who created the soul that is me...
Grandmothers and Grandfathers call to me
In voices remembered yet unspoken.

What is it that I seek?
The immortal garden
The place of creation where love exists eternally
without condition or abandon
and peace abounds in all living creatures. ...
The place of my beginnings in humanity
through my ancestors flesh, blood and spirit
I will find my way by walking the path they walked.
The past will take me home to the beginning of time
Back to the garden,
The garden where outside time
We have always been.

-by Summer Breeze, The Midnight Writer
August 5, 2008