Giving thanks despite losses

This Thanksgiving week was one to try the community’s ability to give thanks.

Family and friends of Jason Baldwin and Jeffrey TenEyck were stunned and grief-stricken by their deaths, along with two others, in a small plane crash into deep coastal waters on Saturday. They, and their aircraft, have at last been brought to shore, and the process of determining how such a tragedy could happen will commence.

We are all saddened by the loss of these young, vital men. It is almost beyond comprehension that lives of such promise can be lost so suddenly, and yet it has happened.

At times like this it is easy to ask, “What is there to be thankful for?”

At times like this, it can be so difficult to answer that question.

Those tragic, unimaginable deaths certainly put into perspective another community loss from this week: the demolition of the last original structure and the old, beloved trees at the former Pottery Shack.

But it would be untrue to say that many didn’t feel this loss, too, and will for a long time.

People in the neighborhood watched in disbelief and distress as workers and heavy equipment brought down the stately trees and the Depression-era building to make way for a parking garage to serve the redeveloped site.

It is clear the trees and the old complex will be missed, but new, solid structures will replace the ramshackle, board-and-batten buildings that had served their purpose, and exhibits will preserve the history that was made there.

By early next year, the Greeter will have returned to his old haunt, and new businesses and livelihoods will again be cradled in a place that has stood for so long as a mecca for art and commerce.

True, the neighborhood will never be the same, but in time it could be better than ever.

We wish the same could be said for the family and friends of Jason Baldwin and Jeffrey TenEyck. Their lost lives can not be so easily replaced, and healing will take time -- no doubt, years.

But a day will come, we are certain and we deeply hope, when they will be able to answer the question, “What is there to be thankful for?” And that their answer will be the memories of their loved ones and the time they had together.