People stop to reflect, leave tokens of grief
By Deborah Ensor
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER  March 3, 2002 Things were oddly quiet on Mountain Pass Road yesterday. Where once there were swarms of photographers and reporters and television producers, there was only one news van. It sat there waiting, just in case something happened. The neighborhood where 7-year-old Danielle van Dam lived is starting to return to a quiet place. There were no news conferences, and Brenda and Damon van Dam, Danielle's parents, kept to themselves all day. A representative for the family said the van Dams would not be making any public statements or appearances, and Damon van Dam spent part of the day at his son's baseball game. But the lack of activity and attention doesn't mean anyone has forgotten what happened in Sabre Springs. The memorial is proof of that. Covered with teddy bears and angels, red licorice candy and a haphazard box of magic markers, the shrine keeps growing. There's a book where hundreds of people have written their thoughts and feelings, their heartbreak and sadness. People still stop by the memorial, though in smaller numbers. Most have the street corner to themselves as they stop for a few minutes to pray or remember or hope or cry.  "My little one is having a hard time sleeping," said Janie Goggins as her 9-year-old daughter Shelby wrote a message to Danielle in the book. "I thought it would be good for her to come here."
There's a small park down the street from the van Dam home, with a few benches and a slide and climbing gym. Twin little girls, dressed in pink, play with their dad, giggling and running around. Raye and Alex Story are only 3, so they don't really understand how special this park is. That it's the park where Danielle loved to play. But Bill Story knows. He drove his family here from Mission Viejo just to visit the park, because the van Dams asked that people who want to honor Danielle's memory do it at the park where she often played. "We wanted to come here, to spend some time," Bill Story said. "We needed to be here. We are trying to support the family any way we can." But few have come to this park. Instead, droves of people continue to head out to rural Dehesa, to visit the spot where Danielle's body was found Wednesday. Hundreds of people continued to come to this site. The area, once a dumping ground, is now clean and almost serene. A park bench was placed under the giant oak tree and piles of flowers and scores of stuffed toys cover the ground where Danielle's body was found. A sturdy wooden staircase leads up to the site, where families gather to hug and cry. Children hang angels from the trees branches, a few men read from Bibles. Many walk away from the site, toward the mountains, and wander around the sagebrush and sand, staring at the spot and the people gathered there. "I'm just trying to get an idea of what went on here, to understand," said Vicki Kozak of Oceanside, as she stood out in the brush, staring up at the sky. "Under different circumstances, you could call this a very peaceful resting place." Annette Rodriguez brought her four children to the site, in hopes of helping them to understand. "You never think it could happen to one of your own kids," she said. "We have to teach them the best way we can, to teach them to look out, to show them to be careful." In addition to these places of mourning, a public memorial service is being planned. It will be held at 10 a.m. March 16 at La Jolla Shores. |
