BALTIMORE — This Friday marks the 40th Fallen Heroes Day at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. The annual event honors first responders who've died in the line of duty.
Each day leading up to Fallen Heroes Day, we're shining a light on the stories that shape the memorial. This is the story of Sergeant Wallace Mowbray.
It's been 50 years since Robin Mowbray lost her father; the memory of the night he was shot and killed is still fresh.
"I had to see my mother, and I remember going there, and she's just sitting in a chair with this blank gaze on her face. I had to shake her, I guess, because she was just in shock and I said, mom, what has happened? What you've got to tell me what's happened," said Robin Mowbray McGillivray. "she said, 'They're telling me that your dad's been shot and he's on his way to shock trauma."
Her father, Sergeant Wallace Mowbray, was shot and killed outside a liquor store in Chester, Maryland, while approaching two men sitting in a car.
It happened just feet from the church her family went to.
"It was, it was a very difficult, hard time, and a lot of times we would just put on a happy face for the general public or our jobs or whatever, but inside we were trying to heal from this, and it just took a very long time and still does, and still does," said Mowbray McGillivray.
In the decades since her father's passing, Robin has been to a few fallen heroes days.
"It does bring back a lot of memories, some mostly bad because that was such a tragedy in our lives," said Mowbray McGillivray. "On the other hand, we're so honored that they would ask us to partake in some of the ceremonies there, and it's, it's very humbling. It's very humbling for me and my family."
In the years since his death, she's seen the transition in the state police to better serve families of fallen heroes.
"These families today, thank goodness, they have the help, the mental health, mental awareness health, that financially they can be helped," said Mowbray McGillivray.
Robin is coming to Fallen Heroes Day this year—nearly 50 years after her father was killed.
