Brattle Street Elegy: An Anchor for Me

I am so sad about this tragedy and cannot stop thinking about it! This building became a home away from home for me after I moved to Massachusetts from California in 1988 to work in Boston. For three and a half years, it was an anchor for me; jobs, addresses, and housemates changed several times, but my membership and participation in the Cambridge University Ward always stayed consistent. Before moving east, I had never lived more than fifty miles from home, so my move to Boston was the true beginning of my adult life. The Longfellow building was where my testimony solidified and my spiritual adventure truly began. 

I have so many memories of both the building and the many friends I met there. I remember Jenny Atkinson’s fantastic Sun day School music instruction (where I learned that a hymn is not always a hymn because sometimes it is a chorale or a gospel song) and I also remember your cheesecakes, Kristine, and thinking you were crazy for going shopping on the bus! 

I remember volleyball on Monday nights in the gym, Sunday district dinners, and how stinky the bathroom was by 3:00 P.M. because of all the diapers left in the trash by Cambridge I Ward mothers. 

I remember men knitting in church, new freshman women looking a little wide-eyed in Relief Society, and men trying to crash Relief Society because they liked our lessons better.

I remember feeling so lucky when I scored a parking space on Longfellow Park or Brattle and feeling bummed when I had to walk several blocks—especially in the rain. I remember hanging out on the front steps on warm spring evenings, watching the seasons change through that beautiful round window and looking up at the brass chandeliers in the chapel. 

I remember some very memorable testimonies (Sam, I remember the day you gave yours.) Most importantly, I remember Bishop Clay Christensen’s warm, gentle, and welcoming leadership style, and getting to know some of the most remarkable people I have ever known. In many ways, Sunday was the best part of every week and it was because of the experiences I had in that build