Vancouver AIDS Memorial

Along the seawall lawn at Sunset Beach, a ribbon of twenty weathering-steel panels curves through the grass. Engraved into the steel are roughly eight hundred names — British Columbians who died of AIDS — placed in deliberately random order, as the epidemic itself struck without order or reason. The memorial, designed by artist Bruce Wilson and unveiled during Pride 2004, was a community undertaking: the Vancouver AIDS Memorial Society began raising funds in 2001 and gathered name nominations from families and friends, and further names have been added in later engraving rounds. A line from George Santayana runs through it: "With you a part of me hath passed away." The setting does much of the work. Sunset Beach faces English Bay at the foot of the West End — the neighbourhood that lived the epidemic's worst years — and the panels rust and weather in the sea air, changing as memory does. What you see today: the steel ribbon on the lawn near the Broughton Street end of the park, free and always open. Come at sunset, read a panel of names, and continue along the seawall; Jim Deva Plaza and the Davie Village are a ten-minute walk uphill.