Provo Tabernacle Fire

('Tis the season for (thankfully) brief bouts of flu, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la. Sorry about missing yesterday.)

Bradley has his computer programed to turn on the radio to the local NPR station every morning at seven, just in case the kids haven't awakened us yet. (As a side note, "awakened" sounds totally pretentious. But "woken" can't be right, even if it is the way I usually say that phrase. Woke us up? Now that whole word is looking very, very odd. Whatever.)

This morning, I dreamily half-heard the local host talking about traffic. "Traffic is very slow in Provo right now, with the Tabernacle fire..." I sat bolt upright and said, "What? Did he say the Tabernacle is on fire?" Bradley confirmed that he had heard the same thing. So I reached for my computer and pulled up the Deseret News.

Sure enough, the beautiful, old, pioneer, stately, gorgeous, unique, amazing Provo Tabernacle was on fire. I read, with my heart sinking a little, that the roof had fallen in, and taken some of the walls with it. The fire had been called in somewhere around 2:30 am, the roof had fallen around 6:00 am, and the fire was still visible inside the building (from the high-rise next to it) at noon. According to the reports, it is likely to burn for a while, because of the heavy timber framework.

Oh! It is sad. I have many amazing memories of that gorgeous old building. We had a sunrise Easter service there one year. I remember watching the early spring sunlight shining through the old pioneer stained glass. We had a pioneer sesquicentennial celebration there one summer; I was an usher and wore a gorgeous late-1800s style costume, with my hair elaborately styled. Last year, I took Zee to his first concert ever, there, to watch his good friend Jacob in a children's choir performance. Just last night, Bradley and I drove past the Tabernacle, and noted that the "Gloria" concert would be there this weekend. We debated going, but realized that sick kids weren't going to make that possible.

I am so grateful nobody has been injured in the fire. (When the firefighters went in, they pulled out almost immediately because of the extreme danger.) And it feels silly to think that this is a tragedy, because it's just a building. But it was a building that was such part of life in Provo, and was such a testament to the determination and spirit of the pioneers. It is a tremendous loss for our community!