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Lights In The Darkness

Tribune photo by Jason Behnken

Corinne Gaertner, right, and her daughter, Antonia, 9, bow their heads in prayer a during the Homeless Persons' Memorial Day Interfaith Candle Light Memorial Service Friday night at Joe Chillura Courthouse Square.

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By RAY REYES, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 22, 2007

TAMPA - Sixty-five candles were lit at dusk, each symbolizing the life of a homeless person extinguished this year by illness, an accident, natural causes or violence.

The youngest who died was 22, the oldest, 74. They lived in the county and called its streets home.

They all deserved to be remembered and their names known, said Rayme Nuckles, chief executive officer of the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County.

The nonprofit held its annual candlelight vigil Friday evening at Courthouse Square Park in downtown Tampa to commemorate those who coalition members called their "homeless neighbors."

One by one, each name was read aloud to a crowd that numbered about 100, and a candle was lit to commemorate the individual. Near the end of the ceremony, the flame of a large candle glowed to honor those whose names and deaths went unrecorded.

Corinne Gaertner, who volunteers at a Tampa cafe that caters to the homeless, could barely hold back her tears. She lost one of "our guys this year" to cancer, she said.

"He would come in every day and say, 'Hello young lady,'" Gaertner said.

His name was Lee Marshall. Gaertner spoke it aloud for the crowd to hear.

Friday night's ceremony coincided with Homeless Persons' Memorial Day, which was observed in Tampa and Hillsborough County and recognized as a national event, said coalition spokeswoman Lesa Weikel.

Events such as the one held Friday "continues to elevate the homeless issue into a community priority," Weikel said.

Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 865-4433 or rreyes@tampatrib.com.

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