Kirian

Kirian Kossler’s descanso is just South of Bend, Oregon on a road that used to be rural and largely untravelled but has become busier and busier as Bend has grown. Kossler died when her Suzuki went off the road and up the embankment causing her car to roll.

Kirian was twenty.

Law enforcement said that she was wearing her seat belt and that alcohol was not a factor in her death. Nor was traffic or speed, at least not according to the available report.

She was a student at Central Oregon Community College and about the same age as my own kids are now when she died. Increasingly this project is making me worry more and more about my kids; it’s irrational but my lizard brain doesn’t seem to care.

I was struck by the image above, the little angel with the shadow of barbed wire across her face. The simple cross with the horseshoe providing hints to what Kirian’s life was like before that unfortunate evening.