The Churches of West Denmark by Johanne Johansen Hansen

 Before Aunt Johanne died, she asked that her bellpull of the Three West Denmark churches be given to the church.  Her daughters sent the bellpull & story to me.  We were in Safer-at-Home mode by then, so I still have the bellpull here.  Laila and I are planning on going to church when she is here in 2 weeks, I'm planning on taking the bellpull over and presenting it to the church on that day. 

The bellpull is beautiful and her memories of the three churches are priceless.  I will frame her story and ask the church to hang them side by side, in memory of Aunt Johanne.

The Churches of West Denmark by Johanne Johansen Hansen

 I sewed the bell pull of the churches after the third church was built. The first church was the one I remember going to as a child. The church was built to look like a cross and there was a door on each of the ends of the cross-piece of the cross, besides the main entrance to the West. The door to the South was where we would enter the church and then sit in the pews that were there, about 4 or so pews facing North and parallel to the center aisle of the church. I don't know if my parents chose to sit there because it was easy to get out if we kids did not behave or what, but it was a good place. We could see the other people in most of the church and we were fairly close to the front of the Church.

 I remember going with Mother to the church once when lightning had struck the tower but that time there was no fire. Just a lot of plaster had been knocked off the walls. Mother was there to clean up the mess. I was not very big, but I remember being quite uncomfortable being in the Church all by ourselves. I do not know why. I don't think I was afraid, but it did not seem right without all the people there. The Church was again struck by lightning and this time burned. Someone saw the fire in time so that many people were called, and the men were able to get the pews and the Christ figure from the altar. The pews were screwed into the floor, but the men said they were able to pull hard and pull the screws up. They thought that under normal circumstances they could not have done that. When I made the bell pull, I put a red roof on the church just as the other two. It did not actually have a red roof, but it was more gray like most shingled roofs would be. I thought it would look strange on the piece, so I cheated a bit. My brother Chris gave me a bad time about that.

 The second Church was then built. Herluf Paulsen, a local carpenter and a member of the congregation got the job of building. My Dad worked for Herluf so he helped with much of the cement work on the Church. Many of the members volunteered to help too to keep the cost down. Jes Smith built the altar, pulpit, altar rail and small lectern for the Church. If I remember right, he was already over 80 when he did this. This is the Church where I was confirmed and married. It was a nice Church but not really very practical. The entryway was small and so there was no place for people to visit. On a cold winter morning people did not linger long outside. The windows were frosted. Why I do not know. Mother did not like those windows. She wanted to be able to look out at the green trees and perhaps out over the lake. This Church burned too, but it is generally thought that this was arson. It could not be proven because everything burned so completely that there were no clues to show how the fire started. This fire burned very early in the morning and was so far along by the time it was discovered that nothing could be saved. The pastor went into the small room off the entryway and got his robe and then thought about the heavy bell hanging just above him and so he left in a hurry. The communion service was at the parsonage so that was saved.

 The third Church was then built. Again, local carpenters and members of the Church, the Petersen boys got the job of building. Ane Marie (my sister) was on the building committee. She put in a strong argument for clear windows and also the large windows to the east where you see the green trees and the lake. This Church was also built with an extra room at the back that can be used for serving coffee, for overflow seating and for small meetings during the week.

 I decided that I wanted to sew these three Churches. I had pictures to look at but no kit like I usually had for such a project. I asked granddaughter Kim to make drawings on graph paper for me. She did that but it still did not give me any shading and color chart to go by. So, I call this my most original piece. I did sew and undo and sew again on many places. I have been asked if I could make another one. No way. I would not want to even try to do it again. 

Johanne