Mary Stain

Has anyone seen the salt stain Virgin Mary on the wall of the underpass by Fullerton? I have and I remember the fiasco when it was discovered. In 2005 a driver passing by noticed that a stain on the concrete wall looked like the Virgin Mary. The media picked up on it of course and people went crazy! People jammed the underpass spilling into the street. Police had to be called to control the crowds. The Mayor got involved saying that it was only liquefied gunk trickling down through the cracks of the overpass after a long frozen winter and staining the wall. Did people listen? No. They saw a miracle and hung on for dear life.

I went and saw it with my dad one day and even before he was close enough to closely examine it, he started ranting about the stupidity of sheeple. He pointed out the clearly visible gobs and crystals of yellowed road salt in the center. It isn't too hard to figure out the rest of the figure was made of road dirt, exhaust, and whatever flies off the highway.

What freaked me out more then being under a dirty, ghetto underpass were the people who were there. They had left flowers, balloons, candles, greeting cards, teddy bears. It was like the gate outside of Kensington Palace after the death of Diana. A sea of wilting color.

The people were almost worse then the gifts. Crying, wailing, sobbing, hugging, kissing. It gave me wicked second hand embarrassment. When they started to write prayers on the wall in marker, I hightailed it out of there. I am all for people being religious, but it makes me so uncomfortable when it is done so ostentatiously towards slime on the wall.

To this day even after it has been covered up, I will still see people down there taking pictures or see a candle flickering in the wind. Chicago has always been big on the supernatural and a supposed Virgin Mary on a highway wall is no different.