Flanders Fields, set in picturesque southern Belgium and north-west France, was a battlefield during WWI. What can this land and a poem it once inspired teach us about survivor guilt? Click on the image to find out.
Maybe we're frightened like children in the darkness,
Chasing shadows in the strangest dreams.
Sometimes living feels harder than dying.
Sometimes it feels like we're trapped in between.
​
Weight of the Sky - Randy Stonehill
Do you lie alone and silent, question just where you belong?
Have you traced it to a place, a time, a thought, to anyone?
You seize the golden moment, only to hold on for too long...then it's gone.
​
Blink - Rick Elias
Kelly Duncan was only 22 years old and working as a stewardess when the 737 she was on crashed during a snow storm. She never thought she would live to be 60 years old after that horrible day. After her rescue, she often considered the possibility that God spared her life because he was mad at her. To read her story, click on the image.
Dust in the wind...
All we are is dust in the wind.
Kerry Livgren
Moments after leaving port, the MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsized. Of the 539 souls aboard, 346 survived. Many of the survivors were trapped in darkness for hours. Among those clinging to life were the Rogers family. Click on the picture to read about how this tragedy impacted them.
We are frail, we are fearfully and wonderfully made
Forged in the fires of human passion
Choking on the fumes of selfish rage
And with these our hells and our heavens
So few inches apart
We must be awfully small
And not as strong as we think we are
Rich Mullins
​
​
With no parachute, Sgt. Alan Eugene Magee survived a 22,000 foot free fall from a burning B-17 Bomber on January 3, 1943. Everyone else on board the aircraft perished. He found relief from survivor guilt in the context of his faith and his service. Click on his image to read his incredible, true story.
A retired police officer attempted an armed robbery at the Fort Littleton interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike on Palm Sunday, 2016. Toll collector Mike O’Keefe was the intended target. When the robbery went badly, there was a shootout that resulted in 3 deaths. O’Keefe survived but his life was never the same afterwards. Click on the picture to read O'Keefe's story.
The man pictured here is the father of a murder victim. He sits, waiting to meet the father of the killer. Click on the photograph to find out more about the murder and what happened after this picture was taken.
And I'm not afraid to admit that I'm afraid,
I'm bewildered by the great and the terrible way we're made,
Oh, that my eyes could shed these scales,
I can almost make out the shape of a face just beyond the veil.
Randy Stonehill
​
​
This sculpture of a broken woman, formed by Mary Frank, is a visual representation of the guilt she felt after her daughter was tragically killed in an airplane crash. Click on the photograph of the sculpture to learn more about the artist and what happened.
Like a vapor this life is just waiting to pass...
...like the flowers that fade, like the withering grass
Bob Hartman
The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
​
“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
During his lifetime, Elvis Presley appeared in 31 films, recorded 784 songs, and performed 1,684 concerts. He also struggled with survivor guilt. Click on his image to find out why.
Would that we could see through this curtain of darkness
That hangs thick and acrid over tentative happiness
The bitter fog that has fouled the waters and the firmament
And caused us to be twisted beyond recognition
​
Mark Heard
This drawing was one of many drawings rendered by artist Fred Terna. To learn about when and why he drew this image, click on the drawing.
“He cannot forgive himself for having saved himself when his wife and child went to their deaths we are all as if drugged. Yesterday all of my family were living and now - all are dead. Each of us stands as if turn to stone. I weep for my fate, for what I have left to see.”
​
Chil Rajchman, The Last Jew of Treblink
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a storm on November 10, 1975. Richard Bishop was the only survivor – because he called off sick that day. This painting entitled “Every Man Knew” was commissioned by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society. To learn Richard Bishop’s story, click on the painting
​
New York Philharmonic conductor Theodore Eisfeld
was one of 89 survivors when the Austria sank in the Atlantic in 1958. He was unable to ever conduct again. Click on the painting to learn more of his story.
"My life changed that day. The hard part is going through it in my mind, over and over again."
​
Craig Scott, Columbine survivor
​
​
“The reality of being here eludes me. I can’t focus. I am dazed. I want to stay this way. If I have too much clarity, I fear I will be undone.”
Sonali Deraniyagala, Wave, Life and Memories after the Tsunami (2004)
​
​
The fire portrayed in this painting occurred in 1940. Among those who witnessed the destruction were the artist and the family who lived here.
Click on the painting to learn more about what this family thought about the artist's work
On January 15, 1919, a storage tank containing 300,000 gallons of molasses exploded onto a busy street in Boston, Massachusetts. 21 people were killed. The only modern remembrance of this tragic event in the entire city is a small, green historical plaque attached to a cement wall. Could survivor guilt cause and entire city to purposely forget?
Click on the photo to learn more.