At a memorial this Sunday, Fort Worth-based folk and soul singer Abraham Alexander will perform songs from his new album, "SEA/SONS", in honor of those who’ve died in traffic accidents.
One track, the song "Today" includes the lyrics: “If I was to die today, what is it I would tell you? /If I could share my pain, I hope it never fails you.”
The record brings to mind the painful loss of the singer’s mother, who died when he was 11 in a car accident shortly after his family arrived in the U.S. They’d moved to Texas from Greece, where he was born to parents who’d immigrated from Nigeria. Nine months after moving stateside, his mother was hit head-on by a drunk driver going the wrong direction on the highway, killing her.
“It was the love that she shared with me and the message that she passed on to me and my brothers and my siblings right before she passed,” he said in an interview a few days before the event.
Alexander will share the song at World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims at City Park Pavilion. The memorial began in 1993 in Europe and has since spread around the world.
Other communities will also remember those lost in traffic accidents. Boulder will hold a Memorial Walk on Nov. 16. In Colorado Springs, memorials will be placed at intersections where a person was killed in a car crash between December 2023 and November 2024. In Greeley, there will be a commemorative vigil where family members and survivors can share stories; in Parker, there will be a prayer and candle memorial at O’Brien Park Gazebo, both on Nov. 17.
Besides the music of Alexander, other events at the Denver memorial include music by The Cheeks, a local band, and an altar creation by Cal Duran, from Denver, who who described himself in an interview a few days before the event as an educator and multi-media artist specializing in Dia de los Muertos memorials and imagery.
He honors the memory of people lost, and in Colorado, the number lost to traffic accidents has averaged close to two per day in recent years. The Colorado Department of Transportation reported more than 750 fatal car accidents in 2022, a number that went down almost 10 percent in 2023. The data goes in the opposite direction regarding the number of seriously injured; CDOT reports that the figure went up from almost 3,700 in 2022 to over 4,100 in 2023.
For Sunday’s event, he’ll create an altar using an armoire he’ll adorn with roses.
“I will be there just holding space.”
He’ll smudge the area, burn incense and hang a line from which people will be able to display photos of those they lost and also write messages to them.
“There will be pictures of loved ones hanging, kind of like a clothesline,” he said. “So those images will be represented. And then there’ll be Day of the Dead-themed skeletons and garlands.”
He said he’s done about 10 altars of the same sort around Colorado this year, and the altars always include offerings.
“We have water to quench the thirst of our loved ones. We have candles to represent the fire,” he said. “And then we have food and offerings just to really memorialize and celebrate our loved ones in a way and [to let them know] that they are always with us, and their lives are to be celebrated.”
Singer Alexander said he looks forward to arriving in Colorado on Saturday in preparation for the Sunday event.
“I can’t wait to celebrate life and honor people who have lost loved ones that are going to be there, who have had a personal experience ... or they’re supporting others who have experienced that. And so I think that when all of us are there collectively, that’s not [a] coincidence. We chose every day to be at that event, and I think that it’s going to be very impactful and very meaningful.”
When the event is over, Duran said he will take home the pictures and notes; then he’ll honor those lost with one last step.
“I always hold a ceremony, a fire ceremony at my house with friends and family, and we read the messages and we throw them back in the fire, and then it goes back to the sky, back to the great mystery of life.”
Those who lost a loved one in a road accident can fill out a form by Nov. 17 that asks for stories and images of loved ones lost or injured in traffic accidents. Duran will receive the images, which he can then weave into his altar ceremony, he said.
