It is raining outside and unseasonably cold. The grey sky literally melts onto the horizon in a damp uninviting sheet. The old man is getting ready to go into Worcester for the Worcester 6K race/walk, one of the largest community events in the second largest city in Massachusetts.

From an Article from the worcester Telegram & Gazette:

The event was started to raise money for a memorial to the six firefighters who were killed in the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. fire in December 1999. It now benefits organizations within the community. This year, it will help the Genesis Club, Connecticut Burn Foundation, Bottom Line, Community Harvest Project and Sherry’s House.

Now this event is very close to us since our very own BuffCat was a stray in that very neighborhood and was probably hiding somewhere nearby on the night the warehouse went up. The brave men who went into that building were looking for a homeless couple who were known to squat there. BuffCat probably knew them, being homeless himself at the time.

The old man used to walk by the place everyday on his way to work in downtown Worcester and talks about the site, the fire and the response from the firefighting community. He was moved by the teams from around the country who paid their respects by bringing T-Shirts with company logos to hang on the fence the surrounded the site of the fire. The shirts and momentos have been removed and put in safe keeping, but the memory remains strong for the families, friends, neighbors and pets of the men who were lost that day.

It's a small, and sometimes harsh world, mates!
Thank god for our heros.