By William C. Singleton III
Journal contributor
What began as one Hoover teen’s efforts to keep the memory of her friend alive has become a memorial to other Hoover High students whose lives have been cut short.
After three years of planning, 17-year-old Abbey Greer’s memorial to her friend, Dallas Golson, and two other students has become reality.
During a Sept. 20 ceremony in the Hoover High courtyard, Greer, school officials and family and friends of the deceased dedicated a black marble obelisk bearing the names of the three fallen students.
The obelisk will stand as a permanent memorial to Dallas, Natalie Hurst and Jerrell Thomas–each killed in separate car accidents.
“Dallas was one of my very good friends so when she passed away, I wanted to do something to honor her memory,” Greer, a Hoover High senior, said. “I knew that Hoover had lost quite a few students so I knew I wasn’t the only one who probably felt this way.”
Greer and Golson served in the Girl Scouts together. When Greer was ready to pursue the Girl Scouts Gold Award, she proposed creating a memorial for her friend and other students whose lives ended too soon.
The Gold Award– the Girl Scouts’ highest honor–is given to scouts who create a project that serves a community purpose, is educational and is designed to make a lasting impact.
Greer said she not only wanted to create a memorial to students who’ve lost their lives but also to help students process their grief.
“I feel that when young people experience such a loss, we really don’t know how to grieve,” she said. “Yes, people lose grandparents, and that’s tragic. But it’s nothing near what I felt when I lost a peer.”
Greer said she approached the principal of Hoover High and asked about ways she could honor fallen students. Hoover school officials informed her that they had a marble obelisk that was not being used. The school agreed to offer the obelisk for the memorial.
“All we had to do was purchase plaques,” Greer said.
Greer also created a pamphlet dealing with grief and loss and including resources students can access should they need them.
“She’s going to make sure all those are distributed in the health classes,” Katie Smith, the school’s crisis counselor, said.
Greer also enlisted the help of the school’s Student Ambassadors group, which will be responsible for maintaining the memorial after she graduates, and established procedures to be followed if another student’s name has to be added to the monument.
“Hopefully, that won’t happen,” Greer said.
Although other students have died during their time at Hoover High and have plaques located on school grounds, their names won’t be added on the memorial.
“When we started the project, we went five years back, and these were the students’ names we found,” Greer said. “We had to have a cut-off date so we started at 2006.”
Barbara Wood, Dallas’ mother, said the memorial means her daughter’s memory will live on at the school.
“As a parent, you’re so afraid your child is going to be forgotten, that people are not going to remember what a wonderful person she was,” Wood said through tears. “So this just means everything to me to know there’ll be something permanent here for people to remember Dallas.”
Jon Hurst, Natalie’s father, said he agreed.
“As time goes on and generations go through the school, I think it’s great that when people come back for class reunions or they have kids and they come back to the facility, they’ll see my daughter’s name and they’ll remember my daughter,” he said. “This signifies the fact that she’ll be around forever now, as long as the school is here.”