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Andy and I are marking a milestone year as we celebrate 25 years since our wedding in the Chapel at St. Paul’s.  Neither one of us had ever put down roots so deeply before we stumbled upon St. Paul’s, and I can honestly say we did not do it purposefully – our life just “happened” here.  We can walk around the grounds and find the place we took preschool photos of the boys, see the buildings we helped to reconstruct, and stop at the memorial stone for our beloved Aunt Annie. Twenty five years made lots of memories for us.

Although we can be sentimental about the places in our lives, for us, it has been the people we have lived with and learned with at St. Paul’s that have had the most profound effect on us. We have stood in the Memorial Garden for many services over the years, commending our friends and mentors to their final resting place. Visiting the Garden at other quiet times, reading  the names of those memorialized there, fills me with a profound sense of encouragement as I recall the good lives that have been a part of my journey. Their influence never ends.

When it came time to consider reserving space for our own resting place, Andy and I knew it would be difficult to predict where our lives may go in the intervening years (we hope there are many ahead), but we knew that we would never have a space that influenced our family as much as St. Paul’s has. When we face the moment of saying good bye, we want to be surrounded by the love that we feel so strongly now. We want our boys to be able to return to the place that nurtured their parents through the most amazing years of their lives, to know they were rooted deeply here, no matter what life brings. It is such a comfort to know that St. Paul’s will be there for us, giving our loved ones a place to return to and be inspired.

Submitted by Mary Kintz