Artwork testifies to deacon’s and child’s prayerful friendship
People who saw Deacon Christopher Wickern often mistook him for another fellow with a long white beard and enough radiant joy to fill a sleigh.
But Deacon Wickern’s affinity for Christmas was much deeper than that.
“It all begins at the beginning,” he wrote on Nov. 15, 2021. “The Creator of the Universe knows us from the beginning. Out of all time, He created us to be here and now to fulfill His will for us.
“And in the fullness of time, God the Son came to offer Himself as ransom so we may share in eternal life,” he wrote.
Deacon Wickern, who was assisting the pastor of St. Ann Parish in Warsaw and Ss. Peter and Paul Parish in Cole Camp, had been battling liver cancer and uniting his own tremendous pain to Christ’s.
Deacon Ray Purvis was coordinator of diaconate formation in the time leading up to Deacon Wickern’s ordination in 2016.
They had become friends, as had their wives and families.
Deacon Purvis’s granddaughter, Claire Huntley, was dealing with her own health problems. Among other things, she was diagnosed with stomach migraines, had recently recovered from eye surgery and was trying to navigate a frustrating litany of food allergies.
Deacon Wickern was quite familiar with suffering, so Deacon Purvis’s wife, Donna, asked her whiskered friend to offer Claire some encouragement.
They began corresponding by mail, praying for each other and offering up some of their suffering for one another.
“Deacon Chris would write some explanation of prayers and things like that for her,” said Deacon Purvis. “She would always write back with an acknowledgement.”
A gifted artist, Claire often included a detailed line drawing of something uplifting or reminding Deacon Wickern of her prayers.
“When Chris was dealing with cancer, I would open all the cards he got and read them,” Mrs. Wickern recalled. “It was wonderful to get those cards with the prayers.”
One time, Claire sent a silly get-well card that gave Deacon and Mrs. Wickern a good laugh. But not for long.
“She had included a drawing and letter that made us both cry,” Mrs. Wickern recalled. “I don’t remember the words but I still cry when I remember it. It was like it was her turn to comfort him in his suffering.”
The drawing was of a rosary, adorned with flowers.
“That was the one that meant the most to him,” said Mrs. Wickern.
Christmas was their favorite time of year, and Deacon Wickern loved everything about it.
Starting in 2010, he and Mrs. Wickern volunteered throughout the Sedalia area at Christmastime in the role of the season’s most recognizable husband and wife.
The deacon had been Catholic his whole life.
“I did wander away from the faith for several years, but my faith never left me,” he wrote at the time of his ordination. “It was always calling me to come home.”
He said he believed that his call to be a deacon was less about bringing people to Christ than “bringing Christ to the people in all that we do — at work, at home and in ministry.”
Bugged by worsening symptoms, he went to the doctor 10 days before Thanksgiving last year.
He found out that he would likely spend Christmas in eternity.
“What we had hoped for with continued remission isn’t to be,” he posted on social media. “The scans show extensive damage to the liver. There are no treatments to try. Today our hospice provider came to get us started on this journey. A journey of final things.”
“What’s to fear?” he posted. “Life is changing but not ending. Life is always in the hands of God. In His Love.”
He died a week later.
When Mrs. Wickern ordered a headstone for him, she asked for Claire’s rosary image to be etched into it.
The headstone was installed on Aug. 8 of this year.
“I think the etching in the center of a rosary by a special young lady, Claire, turned out beautiful,” Mrs. Wickern stated at that time. “Chris would be pleased.”
Claire and her mother, Laura Purvis Huntley, saw a picture of the headstone on the one-year anniversary of Deacon Wickern’s death.
“There are no words,” Mrs. Huntley stated.
