Public vigils for anyone who has lost a child are held across the country on Dec. 6 at Angel of Hope Statues. Richard Paul Evans created the statues as the author of The Christmas Box book.

In Altamont last Friday, mourners remembered two youths who were killed in a car crash just outside the village in 2002. Teachers, friends, and families of Melissa E. Herzog and Korey Efaw, Guilderland High School students killed in the accident, had joined together to bring the Angel of Hope Statue to the village park.

At the vigil, Elise Herzog and Ed Frank bow their heads before she placed white flowers on the statue and Mary Boucher, Melissa Herzog’s grandmother, is supported by Altamont Trustee Bill Aylward as she places a flower at the foot of the statue.

Photographs by Michael Koff