Solitary shoes a tactile symbol of amputees' sacrifices

[unhappycamper]

Army Chaplain (Maj.) Eric R. Meyners looks over bins filled with shoes in the chaplain’s closet at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Meyners says he doesn’t notice the mateless shoes, which are meant for amputees, when he’s at work. But when he explains the purpose of the shoes during tours, visitors always fall silent.


Solitary shoes a tactile symbol of amputees' sacrifices
By Seth Robbins, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 2009

LANDSTUHL, Germany — Behind Landstuhl Regional Medical Center’s closet door No. 3E 105 are two bins labeled "left" and "right."

They are filled with shoes.

Smelling of fresh leather, the shoes vary in style and size: a green and black Reebok high top, size 10; a tangerine-colored Converse, size 8; a women’s white New Balance, size 5; a burgundy and black hand-sewn slipper, no size given.

The bulk of these shoes have no mate because the other is being used by someone who has lost a limb.

"They live in the closet," Army Chaplain (Maj.) Eric R. Meyners said of the shoes, sifting through the bin. "It just doesn’t seem to be the right thing to do to have them displayed."


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=65993