Yesterday evening I went with my friend E to a concert in a countryside church in the village outside town where my parents lived in their retirement years - and my paternal grandparents all their life. They + more relatives are also buried in the churchyard there.
When we arrived, I first went for a stroll around the churchyard to check on 'my' graves, while E went into the church to make sure we got good seats. She also knew a few more people who were coming - including one of her own daughters singing in the choir.
No flowers had been planted yet on the graves tended by the church (a service we pay an annual fee for, and pansies will probably appear there any day now); but to my surprise I found this little angel keeping watch on my parents' grave. As it was not me or my brother who put it there, I'm intrigued who did... As I've never seen any of our other family graves adorned with such ornaments either, I suspect it's most likely that it really belongs to a neighbouring grave, adorned by several similar items. (Could have fallen over, and got picked up by churchyard staff not knowing where it belonged.) But as I don't know, I did nothing about it. (If it really does belong on the other grave I suppose they will recognise it and take it back.)
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| Fristad Church |
It had been raining earlier in the day, but the rain stopped in the afternoon - I did not need the umbrella I had brought "just in case". After a very summery Saturday, I was back in my winter coat, though!
Photo of the interior taken while we were waiting for the concert to begin. We were there early as quite a large audience could be expected (and so it also turned out). A nice surprise for me was to also meet another old friend there (84 years old now) whom I hadn't seen in years. One of his sons was also in the choir. He sat down with us and he and I had a nice catching up chat before the concert started - while E was chatting with some other friends.
The concert was a musical Mass entitled Gloria, by Tore Aas. (Originally in Norwegian, and performed by the Oslo Gospel Choir. If you want to get an idea of what the music sounds like, you can find it on YouTube.)
Standing ovations at the end of the performance...
... and the choir repeating the last part...
During the concert, the evening sun had come out of hiding and the sky was blue again.
10 comments:
Beautiful church inside and out.so happy you had a good visit with your friends
Monica, what a wonderful post! I love everything about it - the unknown little angel on your parents' grave, the light and airy interior of the church, the catching up with friends, beautiful music worthy of standing ovations, and of course the golden evening light. Just wonderful!
What a lovely church; I like the ceiling and balcony especially. And an angel mystery as well! I love your avatar on Words! Are directions for it on the Words game, or elsewhere?
Thanks Sandra :)
Thanks Meike. It was also the first really "big" indoors event I've been to since the pandemic... Come to think of it, probably also the first time since the pandemic that I shook hands with a number of people!
Ginny, I agree it's a beautiful church - and it also feels light and airy even when full of people! (As for the avatar on Words, it must be one I made on FB - I think I'm logged into Words via FB.)
That really is a beautiful interior - I admire the elegant simplicity of Scandinavian churches.
The inside of the church is very very pretty. And what a surprise seeing an angel, I daresay that angel will be watching over everyone.
Carol, I can only agree :)
Amy, yes - however it got there, I thought it best to let it decide "for itself" whether to remain or fly off somewhere else :)
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