Page 120 - October 7 - Teresa Pirola

“ By the beginning of August 2024, hopes for freeing the hostages had undergone further
24
Fading Yellow Ribbons 2 August 2024
setbacks with more confirmed hostage deaths and intensified military conflict in the region. It was difficult to know what to ‘say’ when peace
and hostage release seemed so unattainable. ” However, I came up with this short reflection in
support of a prayer campaign for the hostages started nine months earlier.
Here and there, I catch a glimpse of a particularly sad symbol of the war in Gaza: fading yellow ribbons and frayed-edged hostage posters.
I am not referring to the hostage posters torn down or defaced by pro-Hamas activists. I am speaking here of the ribbons and posters fastened ten months ago as a protest against brutal atrocities, as a cry for help, as a reminder to the world not to forget what happened on October 7 nor the continuing terror of that day, for the hostages themselves and for their families trapped in an ongoing nightmare of sorrow.
Fading yellow ribbons speak volumes of the passage of time and dashed hopes. As further bodies are uncovered and individuals confirmed dead, the hearts of those who fastened those ribbons and posters grow heavier.
That heaviness is grief. But we can also think of it as the
120