WASHINGTON — (CNN) Several Chick-fil-A restaurants across the country have set up a “Missing Man Table.”
The table represents missing servicemen and women in the armed forces. Chick-fil-A Harvard Park located in Warrensville Heights had the moving display in its restaurant.
The table, draped with a white cloth, contains a note.
The note reads in part:
“This table is reserved to honor our missing comrades in arms. The tablecloth is white – symbolizing the purity of their motives when answering the call of duty. A candle, as a beacon to guide the missing back home. The bible represents the strength gained through faith to sustain those lost from our country, founded as one nation under God. The glass is inverted to symbolize their inability to share in this evening’s toast. The chair is empty – they are missing.”
“We cover a small table with a white cloth to honor a soldier’s pure heart when he answers his country’s call to duty. We place a lemon slice and grains of salt on a plate to show a captive soldier’s bitter fate and tears of families waiting for loved ones to return. We push an empty chair to the table for the missing soliders who are not here. We lay a black napkin for the sorrow of captivity, and turn over the glass for the meal that won’t be eaten. We place a white candle for peace. And finally a red rose in a vase tied with a red ribbon for the hope that all our missing will return someday. You are not forgotten so long as there is one left in whom your memory remains.”
Marketing Director, Gale Doss says she set up the tribute as soon as she heard about it.
Management told Cleveland 19 News Reporter, Sia Nyorkor that customers have been stopping to look at the tribute all day.
“They’re quite surprised to see fine dining set up here in a fast food restaurant and to look at it and say, well, what is all this? You have a lace table cloth, you have a bible, the white candle, the ribbon, the flag, the lemons, what is all that mean,” said Operations manager, Deanna Takacs.
“It reminds us when we walk in here what today is, what we’re actually doing today. A lot of us think it’s a holiday but it’s actually Memorial Day,” said customer, Ronni McGorty.
Chick-fil-A says it wants men and women in service to feel honored today as well as everyday and this is just one way show appreciation.
The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.
(Photo: CNN)
