Early this morning, the inaugural Payne Memorial Run will step off on Ferry Road, marking the 22nd anniversary of Lewiston Police Officer David Payne’s death.

On Saturday afternoon, the second annual butterfly release hosted by Androscoggin Home Care & Hospice will fly at the agency’s Stetson Road hospice center in Auburn.

And on Sunday morning, the fifth annual 5K Emily’s Run, in honor of former Edward Little High School scholar-athlete Emily Fletcher, will lead off in a charge from the EL track.

Three days of memorials held in honor of people we’ve loved and lost.

Three days of reflection, mourning and celebration of life.

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On July 23, 1988, Officer David Payne was killed in the line of duty, shot in the woods off Ferry Road while pursuing a Lisbon drug dealer.

Payne was 26 years old.

A small group of Lewiston officers and friends will run from the place where Payne was killed in Lewiston to Gracelawn Memorial Park in Auburn, where he is buried. The 7-mile run, under police escort, will be a visible reminder of the dangers of police work, and a poignant memorial for one man who made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of public service.

On Dec. 18, 2004, Emily Fletcher was driving home from the University of Vermont when she lost control of her car and crashed into the Pleasant River in Bethel. She died before her car was discovered under the ice.

She was 21 years old.

Fletcher was a competitive distance runner while attending Edward Little High School, and her younger brother Sam thought it fitting to remember her by organizing an annual run in her hometown.

The inaugural Run for Em, now called Emily’s Run, was held in July 2005, seven months after her death, and has grown each year as runners celebrate her life by running the hilly course in the neighborhoods around her school.

Androscoggin Home Care & Hospice is a home-based health care agency that has offered home care for new mothers and infants, care for those suffering from chronic diseases, and end-of-life assistance and family counseling for the past 40 years.

The professional staff is aided by dozens of volunteers who help provide care and support for patients and their families, including extensive grief support to families when patients die.

The agency’s Hospice House, opened in 2005, offers a supportive place for terminal patients to die. In the past year, the House cared for more than 400 patients in 66 communities throughout Maine.

Last year, AHCH launched its first butterfly event, releasing 324 Painted Lady butterflies, each named in honor or memory of a loved one. This year, the butterflies have sold out as people embrace the symbolism of butterflies’ transformation from birth to flight.

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While each of these events is organized to keep memories alive, loved ones left behind are doing much more to honor the dead.

Payne’s children, ages 3 and 5 when he died, have since grown and become teachers. His parents became involved in supporting the families of fallen police officers, attending funerals of officers shot in the line of duty across the country.

Fletcher’s family has formed a foundation, awarding college scholarships and supporting the Auburn Public Library with proceeds from the run organized in Emily’s name.

And, the money raised through the AHCH butterfly release will be used to help uninsured patients.

It’s important to clasp our memories and hold them tight, but we will see evidence in our communities this weekend that people do more than remember the dead. They work to make our communities better places for the living.

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