RRSpin - Shutting out the darkness: Lake vigil honors Alfords

Friday, 16 March 2018 23:28

Shutting out the darkness: Lake vigil honors Alfords ^Featured

Written by Lance Martin

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Mourners place flowers at the foot of cross in the front of the Alford's yard. rrspin.com

Two white carnations were placed inside crime scene tape which last Friday designated the spot of a deadly home invasion on Lake Gaston.

Around a cross in the front yard of John and Nancy Alford, more carnations and other bouquets were placed at its foot this evening.

It was a way the two organizers of a vigil this evening thought it best to remember Mr. Alford, a pastor who was badly burned in the subsequent house fire following the burglary and Mrs. Alford who perished during the ordeal.

The vigil came two days after authorities announced arrests had been made in Mrs. Alford’s murder.

“This is a time when we look at a travesty, a tragedy, something that’s beyond what anybody should have to endure,” said Della Rose, editor of the Lake Gaston Gazette-Observer. “We’ve lost someone very special. I didn’t even know her and in the last week I have regretted that tremendously because she touched so many people.”

Rose and Christina Wells, president and CEO of the Lake Gaston Chamber of Commerce, organized the event which was held in the parking lot of the former Lakehouse restaurant, just around the corner from where the Alfords lived.

Wells told the large number of mourners, “We’ve all suffered a loss and what we’re here to do tonight is remember to pray for John, to remember Nancy and to heal our community.”

Buck Gittman, a deacon at Sanford Memorial Church in Broadnax, where Mr. Alford preached for 10 ½ years, said, “We’re here this evening to light up the evening and shut out the darkness that’s invaded us.”

In his prayer, Gittman said he was thankful himself and two other deacons had an opportunity to visit Mr. Alford in the hospital where he continues to recover. “We have a renewed spirit and we’re relieved that we were able to see John and see that his faith has not staggered. His spirit is strong and he’s already talking about being back. We know he has wounds, burn wounds that take time for healing.”

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Warren County Commissioner Tare Davis, who is also a state Highway Patrol trooper, told the audience, “I truly believe community is a very strong word. If you take community and you compound that with love, you have a very strong community with love and that’s exactly who we are in Warren County.”

Davis said, “It truly disturbs me that this situation happened within our realm but I will not let it stop us from being the people who we are. We’re a community of love compassion, endurance. We will not accept this in our community. We shall live in peace.”

Walter Powell, also a Warren County commissioner and retired law enforcement officer, told the audience, “If we pull together we can overcome this. We also need to stop this. It doesn’t come easy. It’s still very touching.”

Dentis Shaw, a Warren County native who formed the Honorband organization and has traveled to sites within the country where mass shootings have occurred, said before he spoke, the death of Mrs. Alford, “Is another life senselessly taken from earth whether it be the number of 17 in a school or 58 in Las Vegas or 26 in Newtown, Connecticut. It’s senseless someone would take the life of someone so innocent and now we’re talking about elderly people. I’m so appreciative that John lives. This is something that’s so tragic, that another person would do something so violent to someone else.”

Mrs. Alford, a clinical psychologist who owned Carriage House in Roanoke Rapids, where another vigil was also held this evening, helped Donna Burleson, when a tractor-trailer driver killed her husband in a crash in 2007. ‘In 2008 I met Nancy. I was going through a really rough time, grieving for my loss and I think if I hadn’t started seeing Nancy I don’t know if I would have ever made it through that time. She helped me so much and told me I would never get through this unless you forgive. She taught me a lot.”

She heeded Mrs. Alford’s advice and in a mediation session she, her two sons and daughters-in-law forgave the trucker. “We will never forget how she helped me. I’m praying for John and having Nancy rest in peace.”

Wallace Brown, a retired state trooper, said, “This is a tragic affair. My heart bleeds for Nancy. John was a good Christian, a loving man. I loved him and respected him. If there is anyway to forgive the people involved, I hope I can find it because I don’t really forgive easy. It’s hard, especially like from good people like Nancy and John Alford.”

Carol Cowen, a Roanoke Rapids city council woman who served with the city’s graded school district for 44 years, said, “I had the pleasure of having children tested and was helped very much by Mrs. Alford. She was just a nice person and the children loved her. She helped a lot of children. I couldn’t go home without giving her the credit of what she did for so many children and other people, too."

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