Walter White’s Descanso

I found out about this railside memorial via the internet, and I was immediately captivated. What better way to honor a New Mexican (fictional) icon than a descanso, the tierra of our shared culture, a simple cross marking Walter White’s passing. For the uninitiated, descansos are a kind of living tombstone, something of an altar removed from a cemetery, it’s a sacred space dedicated to a soul lost before its time. Typically, and unfortunately, they honor the deaths of those involved in drunk driving, the guilty and victimized, found aside a highway or inner-​city road, an approximate location. Like gravesites they’re carefully tended and maintained, often over generations.
Perhaps more tragic, occasionally you’ll spot the modern version, skeletal bicycle frames covered in flowers. These altars simply destroy me. I live in an automotive mecca, and these deaths mark a dreaded statistic.
Back to Walter White. The location of the descanso resides just outside the fence of the Neo-​Nazi compound where he met his demise. Pictures on the internet depict a bright blue wooden cross, with daisies, candles, and a vase. Beyond, the buildings where he met his maker sit vacant, empty, ready for Better Call Saul.
My cruise to the site revealed, well, something more symbolic. Six months following the final episode, the property is in complete shambles. Windows are shattered. Graffiti everywhere, most of it unremarkable. The place feels sketchy, unsafe. And the memorial? Desecrated. All lost save the plastic vase and a few yellow flowers, scattered in the surrounding weeds, plenty of empty Bud Light bottles.
And this is how it should be, really. Walter White done gone and went in one of the most satisfying finales in television history. And then we turned off the tube. Nice knowing ya, Heisenberg.