Deflection

It has been a rainy day with the upper temperature 63 degrees. But, even with the rain, I took mom for her daily ride to Hebron and back. I do not know why, but mom has been complaining that I am driving too fast. On the back roads, I feel that she is complaining that I am driving too fast on bumpy roads, since Wisconsin has the fourth bumpiest roads in the nation, maybe she has something to complain about.

As we have been driving through Hebron every day, a couple of weeks ago I notice a sign in the marquee of the past Methodist Church for Chapel 1899. The Methodist Church was sold within the past year. As I had a discussion with the past pastor of the church, she stated that it was sold for an event center, but had no idea on what it was going to be used for at that time.

Then just over a week ago, I noted that a couple was getting married last weekend, so today I looked up Chapel 1899 on the web, and, sure enough, it is being used as a wedding chapel. The web site went on to state that the chapel would be used for funerals and the basement would be used for receptions. Although I cannot speak for all of my family, this could not be a better use of the church, since this will preserve the church.

As I have reviewed my grandmother’s photos, there are photos of my parents, my uncle and wife, and my aunt and husband were married there. In the basement, our family has had receptions including my uncle and wife’s wedding reception. As for me, I have attended my grandparents, my uncle, and my uncle’s wife funerals in the church. So visual is this: I am sitting in the pew during my uncle’s funeral, and I am looking through the stained glass window that I know that my grandmother had stared at during church services. My first cousin’s daughter is playing the piano that my grandmother probably played in church, according to my brother-in-laws mother that grew up in the Hebron area, off of my grandmother’s sheet music. Just let that vision sink in for a minute. I do not care about how tough us guys are, but when this amount of family history hits you at a funeral it is hard to keep the tears back. With this type of nostalgia, it is hard to hold back the tears, as I was trying after my uncle’s service. It was just too much at that time.

With the selling of the church, our family was concern with the carillon that my uncle had installed on the church, after my nine year old cousin died of leukemia back in the early 1970s. As the previous pastor to the church informed me, it was hard to maintain and it had old technology. But, with the church setting on the highest point in the unincorporated town, the music filled the town when it was played. So, if this church is going to be used as a wedding chapel, it would seem like the carillon would be used.

As described by the previous pastor, she stated that many of the congregation members past away, they left funds for the church’s maintenance. And, by looking at the outside of the church, recent funds had been spent on the church. But, as with the carillon, it seems like these funds did help with the cost of up grading the church in to a wedding chapel, since the web sit made it clear that at least the basement has been up graded.

Here in Whitewater, the Episcopal Church was sold and the current owner is turning the building in to an office build and reconstructing the sanctuary. The feel of the old sanctuary is gone. Therefore, it is good that this church is being converted to a chapel. As seen in Iowa, there is a little brown church that is used for a chapel, and it is widely known. As for my family, both my aunt’s husband remarried there after my aunt passed away and my dad was remarried there. Hopefully, Chapel 1899 will be widely known and preserved forever.

Roger