Fire was a constant danger to people in the mid-1800s. Homes were built of wood, and all people used open fires for heating, cooking and lighting.
In the summer of 1861 a fire broke out in the fishing village of Risor, Norway. Since almost all men were out at sea, there was very little hope of saving the town. Word spread quickly to save the church. The women and children formed a bucket brigade from the harbor up the hill to the Lutheran Church. Although their own homes were burning, they continued to pass the buckets of water, and the building was saved.
In the great fire, 248 buildings burned to the ground. Only a few remained, and all were on the outskirts of town.
My great-grandfather, Bent Rolfsen Larsen, was gone to sea in 1861. Undoubtedly his mother, aunts and younger siblings participated in the saving of the church. Their original home must have burned with the rest of the town. The Larsen and Rolfsen families left Norway for America in 1865.
Recently, I was listening to a classical music station on my car radio. The announcer said that the next piece was recorded in a tiny baroque church in the Norwegian town of Risor. A chamber music festival has been held there every June since 1991. Most of the concerts are performed in the baroque church that seats only about 400 people.
As I sat in my car in Idaho, I heard beautiful music performed in the church my ancestors might have helped save almost 150 years before. Tears streamed down my cheeks. I could hardly drive.
It was another reassurance that I was being touched from far across the ocean, and perhaps, across the veil. — Loretta Evans, Idaho Falls, Idaho
