It’s that time of year again when outdoor Christmas decorations begin dotting neighborhoods around Wabasha.
For years, Gundersen St. Elizabeth’s Hospital has been known for its beautiful manger that adorns the front entrance to the building. But time – and weather – took its toll on the Holy Family, wise men and barn animals.
Paint chipped, and faces faded. So, one woman decided it was time to revitalize the figures.
The Plainview News reports Shary Meurer is a local artist and St. Elizabeth’s patient. She says she was looking for a way to give back to honor the care she’d received.
“They were really good to me, and then she called me and asked me if I would do that,” Shary says.
“She” is Shary’s aunt, Skip, who’s a member of the hospital auxiliary and was a lab technician in the early 1960s. And “that” is the project Shary was looking for – repainting the Nativity set.
Shary set to work on the nine pieces, not only did she use her artistic skills, but she also made physical repairs to parts of several of them – including sculpting a shoulder and sanding around previously replaced arms and hands.
And then the painting began.
It was a months-long project she started in January of this year, finishing the final stroke in June.
She took no payment for the countless hours; it was her gift to the hospital.
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