Pinellas County, Florida -- In an emotional ceremony Saturday, family members dedicated the first-ever memorial to the victims of one of the Bay Area's worst tragedies.
"I will now have a feeling of closure, remembrance, and peace," Belinda Jackson--the daughter of one of the Skyway Bridge disaster victims--told how more than 100 people gathered for the event at the new Skyway Bridge's north rest area.
Through 35 years of pain, these people have waited for a monument to their loss. In the audience were children, parents, and widows of the 35 people killed when the original Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapsed underneath them.
Thirty-five years ago, on May 9, 1980, a ship called the Summit Venture slammed into the base of the bridge's southbound span in a rainstorm. The entire center section collapsed into Tampa Bay. Cars and a bus plunged into the water.
Unveiled at the ceremony Saturday morning, a six-foot granite marker now stands along the edge of Tampa Bay. A metal plaque carries an image of the old Skyway, a simple description of the tragedy, and the names of the 35 victims.
To begin the dedication event, Bill DeYoung read each of the names aloud. DeYoung had been writing a book about the Skyway disaster when he realized there was no memorial anywhere to the victims.
So he raised the money from the community to place this marker. At the rest area on Pinellas side of the new Skyway Bridge, these families finally have a place to remember.
Speakers remembered the love and humor of the people they lost, and the moments when they realized their lives had been shattered, just like the concrete and steel bridge.
"They were pulling the bus out of the water. And I knew in my heart that they [were] on that bus," Charles McGarrah said heavily. His wife Wanda and his seven-month-old daughter Manesha were killed that day.
Grace Callaway's son John was also on the Greyhound bus that plunged into Tampa Bay. She told me sadness earlier in the week gave way to a feeling of comfort and appreciation by Saturday.
"It makes me feel very good that people can be here 35 years later and not be sorrowful," she said. "To kind of get a sense of joy that somebody is celebrating their loss."
Callaway told me she has avoided this area since 1980. But after Saturday's ceremony, she is now ready to drive across the new Skyway Bridge for the first time.
The new Sunshine Skyway Bridge opened seven years after the disaster. Protective barriers called "dolphins" now sit out in the water to stop ships from hitting the bridge itself. The opening that ships pass through is 50% wider.
Even the way the shipping channel passes below the Skyway was changed, so captains would have an easier time aligning their ships to pass under the bridge.
Also showing support at the ceremony were more than a dozen Eckerd College students in matching blue polo shirts. They represent the college's search and rescue team, which was one of the first to respond to the collapse 35 years ago.
Also in the audience, holding newspapers with articles about her father, was the daughter of the late Wesley MacIntyre, the only driver to survive the fall into water.
John Callaway's best friend Lynnwood Armstrong had been on the very bus that day, but got off in Tampa, minutes before the bus went over the Skyway Bridge.
His voice cracked as he talked about the guilt he has faced, and dealt with, through the years. "I felt like I was -- that it was my fault," he told the audience.
The pain still stings. The tears still come. But, thanks to a monument and the concerned community that erected it, they all know we will not forget.
To learn more about this story, you can follow Grayson Kamm on Twitter at @graysonkamm or visit his personal page by clicking HERE.
