Easter Remembrances

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If you are visiting my blog for the first time, please be sure to read my Introductory Post from December 2016 shown under previous posts.

The Lenten season was a busy time for my dad. Beginning with Ash Wednesday, there were the six mid-week Lenten services to conduct, then, during Holy Week, we had a Maundy Thursday service, Good Friday services (one in the afternoon and another in the evening), and multiple services on Easter Sunday. After awhile the afternoon service on Good Friday was eliminated and the evening service became a Tenebrae service. This was one of my favorite services. And at least one year he engaged the help of John Bendull in constructing an almost life-sized cross and preparing nail pins which the members wore and then inserted into the cross on Good Friday. I still have a pin and have been wearing it this week while working at the library. Here are shown Dorothy and John Bendull at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Round Lake with the cross (on left) and pin (on right).

Easter morning was also a busy one for Dad. It began with the 6 am Sunrise Service followed by an Easter Breakfast prepared by the ladies of the congregation. Then there were the two worship services with a special children’s service in between. After Dad conducted those four services on Easter morning, we either headed for Milwaukee for dinner or hosted it at our home in Cicero, and then later in Round Lake.

 My earliest memories of Easter are dressing up for church. Mom usually made a new dress for me and my sisters, adding new patent leather shoes, white gloves, a purse, hat, and sometimes a corsage. Of course she “helped” prepare baskets for the Easter Bunny to deliver and we always colored eggs. Whether we hosted the Easter dinner or it was held at my grandparents, Mom was involved in the cooking and it wouldn’t have been complete without her lamb cake. I have since inherited her cast iron lamb mold and taken on that task for my own family.

Some Easter mementos I have from my parents include this figure of Jesus in Gethsemane, a portrait of Christ which includes scenes from His life engraved in the face, a china egg and cross hand-painted by Mom, and a wooden butterfly with a cross in the center made by Mom’s cousin, Edwin (Whitey) Gohr.

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