By Mike Billington, The News Journal (Wilmington, Del.)
When Delaware State Police Sgt. Vincent Fiscella called her husband’s name, Susan Shea rose from her pew, squared her shoulders and walked steadily down the aisle toward the altar at St. Polycarp Roman Catholic Church in Smyrna.
She accepted a flower from a trooper standing next to a floral arrangement, raised it gently to her lips and then placed it on the altar.
Cpl. Chris Shea was the 27th Delaware state trooper killed in the line of duty. He died in July when a drunken driver smashed into his patrol car. His death came two months after he and Susan celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary on May 15, the day set aside nationally to remember fallen police officers.
“I am here to represent him and to show my support for the Delaware State Police, which has supported me from day one,” Shea said after the service.
On Monday, Chris Shea and the other state troopers who died in the line of duty were honored at the state police’s annual memorial service, which included selections played by the pipe bands of the Delaware and New Jersey state police, and an honor guard of Delaware and Pennsylvania troopers. More than 300 officers attended, including several from municipal departments and the Maryland State Police.
“You always have mixed feelings when you come to this service,” said Joe Wagner, whose daughter Sandra was killed eight years ago. She was the first female Delaware state trooper killed in the line of duty when she was involved in a traffic accident.
“It’s to the point now that we’re more remembering the good times than feeling the pain of missing her,” he said. “You still feel that pain. It’s there and always will be, but with the passage of time it’s not as intense.”
The annual memorial service, he said, allows him and his family to see troopers who worked with his daughter, men and women they now rarely see. It also allows them to “just be here to offer comfort and support for others, like the Shea family, who have suffered a loss like ours,” he said.
In their comments during the service, speakers praised the deceased troopers as men and women of noble purpose, who often went above and beyond to serve their communities.
As a cadet, for example, Sandra Wagner helped round up volunteers from her police academy class to deliver food to low-income families during the holidays. Eight years after her death, her father said, cadets still take a day off from their studies at the academy to deliver between 1,500 and 2,000 baskets of food to needy families at Thanksgiving.
“It’s a living legacy to her,” Wagner said.
The annual memorial service is a difficult one for many family members, said Eleanor Allione, president of the Delaware chapter of Concerns of Police Survivors and the mother of Cpl. Frannie Collender, the second female trooper to die in the line of duty. She also was killed in a traffic accident.
“Of course it brings back memories, but it’s important that the troopers who are still going out every day to protect and serve us all know that we are praying for them to return home safely,” she said.
Collender’s daughter Samantha Fuller, a University of Delaware student, said the service is emotionally taxing.
“It brings everything back,” she said. “It’s not easy.”
Despite that, she came to the service to honor her mother’s memory and show her support for the troopers who, over the years, have been there for her and her family.
“I think our being here helps the troopers who are out on the road every day,” she said. “They know we care about them.”
Bobbie McGowan, a teacher whose brother, James Farris, was a Colorado state trooper killed during a high-speed chase, said Monday’s service helped reinforce the feeling that she and other survivors are not alone. The state police, she said, have always treated her and other survivors as family.
Susan Shea agreed.
“Just as Chris is my angel looking out for me in heaven, the Delaware State Police are my angels here on earth,” she said. “They’ve wrapped me and my children in their wings. They’ve helped me grieve for him, and they’ve helped me get through this.”