ALTAMONT, N.Y. — White flowers are left at the feet of the angel — a statue cast in bronze with spread wings, tousled hair and the face of a girl.
The small statue — the "Angel of Hope" — was recently dedicated in a village park after Melissa Herzog and another teen died in a car crash.
"I see it every day on my way to work," said Melissa's mother, Elise. "I kind of stop and say hello to Missy, say a little prayer, touch her hand."
The statue in this Albany suburb is No. 26 in an army of angels cropping up in parks and cemeteries around the country, all showing the girl-angel gazing upward and arms outstretched as if lifting a load. The stories behind each statue are different — they're usually from parents of children who were stillborn, deathly ill or killed. They owe their genesis to a Christmas story.
The angels are real-life counterparts to a statue described in "The Christmas Box," a story written by Richard Paul Evans, a former advertising executive from Salt Lake City. The story is a parable about a work-obsessed dad who learns to cherish time with his children one Christmas through an old woman named Mary, who lost her own daughter at a young age.
In the story, Mary pours out her grief at the foot of an angel statue.
Evans made 20 copies of his story to share with his family for Christmas 1992. He self-published it the next year, then sold the rights. Today, "The Christmas Box" has sold 8 million copies.
Mary's tale was inspired by a story Evans heard growing up of a woman grieving at the foot of a stone angel, although he was never able to find the statue. After facing parents at book signings asking where the statue was, he eventually commissioned one of his own.
The first angel statue was dedicated seven years ago in Salt Lake City. The idea of placing the same statue elsewhere gained momentum after an angel went to Oklahoma City to honor victims of the federal building bombing, said Lisa May, chief financial officer for Evans' company.
The 4-foot monuments, which cost about $20,000, including the granite base and landscaping, can be found from San Jose, Calif., to Rutland, Vt. Evans' company places the order for the statues but takes no profit.
The Altamont statue was inspired by Herzog, 17, and 19-year-old Korey Efaw, who died in November 2000 after the car they were in struck a tree on a winding road.
Gina Greco, who had taught both victims in high school, worried about kids hanging out after dark at the tree, which had become an improvised shrine decorated with flowers and pictures. After sharing her worries with the Herzog and Efaw families, they came up with the idea for an angel statue.
It was Greco who had left copies of "The Christmas Box" on the families' doorsteps just months before.
"This promotes togetherness," Greco said. "It's hooking up these people who had a tremendous loss with other people who had the same loss."
Dozens of people gathered for the angel's dedication Nov. 30. On a cold, wet night amid the ghostly glow of candles, Elise Herzog left a flower in the angel's arms and Korey's father, Douglas Efaw, spoke to the crowd.
"I never got to say it to him before," Efaw said. "Korey, I love you. And I always will."
On the Net:
Angel of Hope: www.angelofhopemichiana.org/angelhome.html