Opinion : A brief, beautiful message above Victory Lane

Smoke forms a heart above Victory Lane during Boomtown 2013; mourners gathered there today.

If you are among those who have spent the past week mourning a friend or relative who died in last week’s awful accident – and especially if you are among those who had already attended way too many too-soon funerals in the past year – I have a story for you.

I chose to attend today’s funeral for the last four of the Urbana 5 as a friend, not a reporter. I left my notebook and camera at home.

But as I sat through the beautiful tributes to Quentin Ary, Triston Randall and Hunter and Zoey Tuttle, I thought of something that I saw, and a photo that I too the last time I sat on a breezy afternoon in those grandstands.

Those of you who did not attend, by the way, did miss a beautifully unique ceremony. The pastor noted that the four caskets were resting in Victory Lane; the friends of those we lost in that awful accident last Thursday shared sweet and funny memories. After the hearts slowly pulled a way, eight race cars made five laps around the track – one for each of the Urbana 5.

While I did not take any photos of these tributes, I remembered the inspiring thing I saw the last time I sat at the top of the grandstands.

It was late August, 2013. I was watching my pals from the Iowa Pyrotechnic Association set up their display for the big Boomtown finale. While doing this, they would occasionally shoot off a shell or two.

The wind was blowing fairly strong from the south, so all the smoke  from the grassy area to my right would blow across the track. Someone shot up a “report” shell, which makes a bright flash and a loud noise, followed by a cloud of smoke.

That cloud twisted as it drifted north, and just as it got in front of me – in the center of the infield, above Victory Lane, that roundish cloud formed the shape of a heart. I quickly took a photo.

I am sharing that picture today, for those of you who sat in front of Victory Lane today, grieving the sudden loss of someone who meant so much to you.

I hope that in some small way, this unusual image will help give you faith, hope and peace.

The cloud, of course, was long gone seconds after I took that picture. But I hope its message gives you a mental picture of the beautiful things we can’t see from this side of eternity.