WORLD Radio replay - Grief and restoration

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 12th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: more highlights from the last decade of this program.

All week we’ve featured some of our most memorable profiles and stories as nominated by our reporters and staff.

Today, three stories. We start with a somber anniversary.

REICHARD: In 2018, then World intern Anna Johansen visited Sutherland Springs, Texas, one year after a gunman killed 26 parishioners, and wounded more than 20 others. Every family in the church lost someone they loved. Here’s Anna with their story of healing.

AUDIO: [List of survivors]

ANNA JOHANSEN, REPORTER: Some of the survivors are here tonight. In one corner, Julie Workman. She watched from under a pew as the gunman shot her son—paralyzing him from the waist down. Gunny Macias sits near the front, a cane propped beside him. He was shot five times. Off to the side sits Jenni Holcombe. She lost her husband and her young daughter.

HOLCOMBE: I had a 17-month-old. Everything was about taking care of her and doing things. Now it’s just me.

Holcombe’s sister-in-law, Sarah Slavin, was running late to church that day. She lost her brother and parents—plus five nieces and nephews.

Both women have had to figure out how to navigate daily life.

SLAVIN: Even just you know figuring out how to mow the lawn because we’d never—you know we weren’t the ones that did stuff like that.

Many survivors suffer nightmares, sleeplessness, or depression. Some still won’t set foot in the old church’s little white sanctuary.

AUDIO: [Unlocking the memorial]

The church is a memorial now: white walls, white floors. White chairs mark the spot each victim died, and a red rose sits on each. Contact paper covers the window panes once punctured by bullets. An armed safety team patrols the property.

WILLEFORD: A visual presence makes a difference.

Stephen Willeford lives across the street from First Baptist. He confronted the killer outside the church last November—but he doesn’t want to be called a hero.

WILLEFORD: If I’ve got to be considered a survivor or a hero—I want to be with my community. I’m hurting as bad as they are. I’m a survivor.

AUDIO: [Sound of crowd greeting]

This Sunday morning, the sanctuary brims with talk and laughter. The worship is a cappella because the lead guitarist is sick. But that doesn’t keep them from singing.

SINGING: [Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night. Praise the Lord, I saw the light. I saw the light, I saw the light]

For Slavin and the rest of First Baptist, the last year has only begun to heal their scars. But through it all, they’ve seen God at work.

SLAVIN: On my worst moments, when I feel like I’m hanging on by a thread, that thread is Jesus Christ. There’s been a lot of support and help and stuff, but when you actually get down to it, no one can get us through this. Only God can do that.

For WORLD Radio, I’m Anna Johansen reporting from Sutherland Springs, Texas.

REICHARD: Next, we return to Brooklyn, New York. In 2019, WORLD reporter Sarah Schwiensberg profiled Brian Bigger—by day a phone technician, and by night caretaker of pipe organ in a church. As a child, he heard the grandeur of a particular organ —and it captured his imagination. Years later, he learned it had fallen into disrepair. So he made it his life goal to bring that organ back to life. Here’s his story.

BIGGER: When I started counting out all the pipes that were strewn all over the place, I found out of the 986 pipes in that room, 525 of them were missing. But you see once you have a vision, things like that don’t stop you.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: After working at the phone company all day, Bigger would travel from Queens down to Brooklyn each night to work on the organ. It was four years before it even played.

BIGGER: When I got here the console was in pieces.

BIGGER: So I spent a good year or more restoring the console.

But Bigger wasn’t done yet. He wanted the organ to be perfect. So he spent 17 more years fine-tuning every part of the organ’s pipes, valves, wiring and knobs—all without pay.

Bigger never married, and decided it was easier to sleep at the church in a side room than travel all the way home each night.

BIGGER: I said to the administrator, in the choir room there’s a mattress somebody left there. Can I sleep over? I started sleeping over for six nights a week. It’s extended into 21 years.

Bigger says those years were very rewarding.The organ was featured in dozens of concerts. But then in 2010, tragedy struck. On a hot summer day, an electric fire broke out in the church sanctuary walls. More than a third of the organ’s 2,500 pipes were damaged. Bigger says it was a devastating setback but that all along he knew the organ wasn’t his.

BIGGER: Okay, God, if you want to destroy what you gave me to do for a bunch of years that’s OK with me. I didn’t take it personally. I just learned to give everything to God.

And he started to work on the organ again. And got it playing.

The church owners may restore the sanctuary, or they may sell the building as is. That could mean the organ is removed and sold as well. But Bigger says that’s OK. He just hopes his work has taught a younger generation to love the organ.

BIGGER: I have extended my giftedness to others so they can benefit, and I just am thrilled with seeing the others have the joy of my labors.

For WORLD Radio, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg reporting from Brooklyn, New York.

BROWN: And finally today, one more story highlight from the last 10 years. Kent Covington has been a part of our radio team since practically the beginning. On August 31st, 2018, he filed this heart-felt tribute to one of radio journalism’s most significant pioneers.

KENT COVINGTON, REPORTER: The name I’m about to speak may not mean much to you at first, but you probably would recognize his voice if you heard it.

In 2005 P.H. Aurandt flashed a wide smile at a cluster of TV cameras at the White House as President George W. Bush fastened the Presidential Medal of Freedom around his neck. It was a remarkable honor for one of the most influential men in the history of broadcasting.

But that story began 73 years earlier, when a 14-year-old P.H. Aurandt landed his very first job in radio.He would later say he was thankful that God led him down the career path at such a young age. He often joked that he fell in love with words and ran away from home to join the radio.

P.H. Aurandt’s national news and commentary program hit the airwaves in 1951. And for more than half a century, tens of millions of Americans turned up their radios at the sound of his voice. And there was no mistaking it for another. It was one of a kind. His delivery was precise but warm.

He was a painter. His words the brushes, the minds of his listeners the canvas. And his portraits still hang in the memories of millions.

At the height of his Radio Hall of Fame career, reporting for ABC Radio, he spoke to some 24 million listeners on 1,600 radio stations and he became one of the most influential voices in American journalism.

We remember him today because Mr. Aurandt, Mr. Paul Harvey Aurandt, would have turned 100 years old just a few days from now. You know his name and his voice‚and now you know the rest of the story.

Kent Covington. Good day!

REICHARD: Tomorrow, our final three story selections as we celebrate 10 years of The World and Everything in It. If you’d like to hear any of the complete versions of these stories, we’ve included links to them in today’s transcript: wng.org.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.