Church window honors Sherman couple

By Deborah Rafford
Special to the Pioneer Times
Georgia (Bragdon) McNally stood in the front of the Sherman Washburn Church congregation on August 31, 2008, on what would have been her parents’ anniversary. The occasion was the formal dedication of a stained glass window at the front of the church to her late parents, Clifton and Corinne Bragdon, who were married there exactly 61 years earlier.    McNally shared a little bit about her parents, and why she designed the window the way she did. Her mother was born Corinne O’Roak, on Nov. 18, 1926 in Sherman Mills.  She started her religious training at the Washburn Church when she was around 9 years old.  She became a confirmed member on December 22, 1946. Throughout the years, she displayed a faithful and dedicated service to her church through the many offices she held, which included but were not limited to: Sunday School teacher, Church School Secretary, Deaconess, Church Correspondent, Cradle Roll and Flower Committee.  For Labor Day, she was instrumental in the festivities, especially the parades and pet shows. She was a member of the Eastern Star, and the Women’s Fellowship, where she took great pride in organizing and decorating for the luncheons.
“Both of my brothers and I were baptized and raised in the church where mom and dad were regular parishoners,” stated McNally. “This dedication of her service brought me to a place where she called home, where her soul rests high above us, happy and complete, settled in a scene she herself so often painted.”
“The artistry of colors and the pattern chosen was called upon me with God’s guiding hand,” McNally said. “I believe he had a plan in store for both of them when they so many times paired up and took the dirt road to the mountain, loaded down with cameras, binoculars, fish poles and berry pails.  They filled the pack basket with fiddleheads, stood in a stream to catch their limit, with berry buckets tipping, that were tied to their waistlines, spilling the contents into the current and watching them sail happily down stream, only to wade ashore to a little red truck parked at one of the few wide places in the road at Trout Brook, and cover its tailgate with a tablecloth to dine on their catch, with bowls of berries for dessert.  The frogs, crickets and birds were their orchestra, tuned in for their listening pleasure.”
As her parents dined, they often gazed upon the mountain “with a mix of blues, darker in some spots, like jeans they wore to dress for the special occasion.  The cross adorning the top of the cathedral trail, which got its name from its resemblance from the huge rock slabs that reach like they say, ‘a gothic cathedral’, nature’s very own, where they sat at the base and gazed at the wonder of it all.  A cross in the steeple of its cathedral, opalesque like the shells that were gathered in the brook, shows their souls shining in the setting sun, behind the cross’s rays of his Holy Grace with their everlasting bright lights,” McNally added.
“My mother sketched and painted the sky, the brooks, and the trees with deer, moose, birds and flowers in the foreground.  At peace, they would happily drive home, only to turn around again and go right back.  A few years later, when dad passed away, mom said to me, ‘I wish I could go back up there!’
“With that, I was reminded of a quote that says, ‘There is an hour wherin a man might be happy all of his life, could he find it.’ When mom’s time came to be with our God, my brother asked her if she had a favorite scripture. With great strength, she replied, ‘Psalm 121.’ I do wholly believe in her finest hour, her happiness was fulfilled as she looked upon the hills for guidance to her resting place with peace, as her soul passed unto the hands of God, sealing her forever to a place she loved to go.
“The Washburn Church and Sherman Mills with all its people, truly was her home.  As one enters this place of worship again and again, a greeting comes forth from a spot she has earned here as well as in Heaven,” she said
“Thanks go out to the business committee of this church for allowing mom’s dream of always wanting a window, to come true.  To the treasurer for keeping all the donations and dispensing them safely to Stained Glass Express. Pastor Dan had patience and incorporated a service to honor my parents.  Sandra Trout cut, sewed and stitched a quilt patterned after my mother in a flower garden, which sold hundreds of tickets, helping to see Corrine’s dream materialize,” she added.
And from this community, who accepted with eagerness the design and story behind it all. McNally says she owes her deepest gratitude for allowing her to now rest with its completion.