IN MEMORY

Above:  A Memorial Marker in Five Points, Athens-Clarke County, Georgia

Photograph Dated February 19, 2021

Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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OF

MARTIN REYNOLDS SMITH

SON OF

MR. AND MRS.

J. WARREN SMITH

WHO WAS INSTANTLY

KILLED HERE BY A

SPEEDING AUTO TRUCK ON

NOVEMBER 16TH, 1922

MAY 22, 1916

NOVEMBER 16, 1922

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I reside in the Five Points of Athens-Clarke-County.  Between one sidewalk and Lumpkin Street, across the street from a bakery, is a memorial marker one can easily miss if one does not look down and pay attention.

Martin Reynolds Smith died when he was six years old.  What might he have become, had he lived to adulthood?  What contributions might he have made to society?  How might he have affected the lives of others, for the better, overall, hopefully?

Life is precious and full of potential.  The memory of Martin Reynolds Smith persists, to the extend it does, because of a memorial marker in Five Points, Athens-Clarke County, Georgia.  In time, all of us–even the most famous people who have lived–will fade from living memory.  It will be as if we had never existed.  Walk through an old cemetery and pay attention, O reader.  Ponder how many or few people may care that those buried in that graveyard existed.  Notice that some grave markers are weathered and illegible.  Notice, too, that some graves have no markers.  Know that those lives had meaning.

Know, also, that your life has meaning, O reader.  Make it count for as much good as possible while you have breath.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 5, 2021 COMMON ERA

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