A Sad Odyssey

Just as the morning mist was lifting, the families began climbing the gentle path to the cemetery at Port San Carlos. As they paid silent tribute to the 14 British soldiers who are buried there, several bereaved relatives burst into tears. On one gravestone a widow pinned a picture of her baby. Near by, a Union Jack fluttered in the wind. That scene last week marked the first stop on a four-day pilgrimage by 541 relatives of the 255 Britons who died last year in the ten-week-long war to recapture the Falkland Islands from Argentina.

The families had made the 8,000-mile trip from London by way of Montevideo, Uruguay, where they boarded the Cunard Countess liner for the final leg. After setting sail from Port San Carlos, they sang a traditional hymn and scattered wreaths upon the waves in honor of the 174 British men who died at sea. In Port Stanley, they were invited to lunch in the homes of grateful locals. Said one widow, Sara Jones: "I will go home stoked with memories which will have to last me a lifetime." Meanwhile, in Argentina, a group of more than 400 relatives is still struggling to organize a similar trip to the 221 Argentine graves at Darwin. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.