There are instances when a photograph in a newspaper captures
the essence of an event better than a page filled with words.
There are instances when a photograph in a newspaper captures the essence of an event better than a page filled with words.
Our anger, sadness, or shock rises slowly, by sentence and paragraph, while reading a story. But the stain of an image is immediate.
Such was the case on Saturday when we ran a photograph of the aftermath of a fire that consumed a 143-year-old building on the grounds of the St. Francis Retreat Center in San Juan Bautista. The photograph was like an image from Europe in World War II. A statue of the Virgin Mary stands alone among smoldering ruins, bare chimneys leaning in the background. The image elicits a powerful sense of melancholy.
The main building at the center was made of wood, it must have gone quickly. That firefighters, who arrived at the scene within minutes, were able to save any artifacts from the building is astonishing.
To say that a century of local history went up in flames last weekend does nothing to impart the sadness of what is lost. The St. Francis Retreat was beloved, and not only by those with a religious background. Thousands of people from around the state attended retreats on the grounds, and many of those weekends were non-denominational, or even non-religious, in nature. Many people simply liked to walk the grounds and soak in the sense of serenity the center evoked.
This was not a money thing. The sense of loss is not of wondering whether a business will be able to bounce back. The main building at the retreat is about the loss of place, or of a generational sense of well-being. Anyone who has lived here for any length of time knows people who have spent a weekend at the retreat and have commented on its experience.
And this is not an epitaph. The full extent of the damage will be determined this week and the Franciscan Friars of California, who own the center, will determine what happens next. Perhaps the St. Francis Retreat will be rebuilt into a new splendor.
But a glance at our photograph reveals extensive destruction. The cost of building anything is expensive. Whether the Franciscans have the time, will, and money to rebuild the San Juan Bautista site will be seen.
Father Barry Brusman, director of the St. Francis Retreat Center, is hopeful. But he summed up the feelings of many in the county on the day of the fire. “There is a lot that will never be replaced, it’s a heartbreaker.”
We can only hope the Retreat Center gets back on its feet and once again becomes a destination for anyone seeking a few hours of peace and solitude. Those are two items money can’t buy, and they went hand in hand in a small corner of our world. It would be a shame to lose it.
