CityView Magazine - Fayetteville, NC
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1357585
CityViewNC.com | 19 SAVOR VIBE It boomeranged every time. e job was failure waiting to happen. David explained it this way: "We had to drill 18 holes through a 12-inch solid concrete block wall, with four No. 7 rebar in every cell. e three matching brackets were 13 feet, top to bottom, spaced from 6 feet to 6 feet apart centered, running along a 53-foot wall that had been built using a 4-foot level. We were sure we'd have to drill out every hole, again and again, to get it right because, let's face it, nobody is that good. But tell me I can't do something, and I'll die trying. I'm stubborn like that." Meanwhile, we were virtually unaware that this stubborn Cyrene was already carrying the weight of the world. In David's case, the weight of the world wasn't an 'I've had a tough week' kind of burden, mind you. His was a matrix few can fathom. Leading up to that Tuesday, David received the news early one morning that his brother had died suddenly of a heart attack. Burdened with grief, he and his other brother visited with their sister-in-law, then returned home. David had barely fallen asleep when the phone rang and a voice delivered the news that his second brother, whom he had just been with earlier, had also died suddenly, the same day. Two funerals were followed by a major contractor who didn't show up, a transmission torn out of his work truck, a collision with a deer that totaled his car and delay upon delay on the matter of setting the cross. When David awoke that Tuesday morning, discouragement lay on his heart like a heavy stone sealing off any hope that this day would be any different from the one before. My cellphone rang. "Reverend, we're setting the cross now, if you want to take pictures." I ran up the hill from the back of campus and arrived, winded, to the scene of the cross. David sat straddling the chapel peak, held by nothing except reckless abandon and the grace of God. Because the boom could not reach the top of the cross, men shouted critical instructions from David to spotter to crane operator and back again. Diesel engines on heavy equipment sputtered and clunked, adding to the coarse scene. Wind whistled at 40 miles per hour, rolling the dark storm clouds overhead like smoke billowing from a freight train. FayettevilleNC.gov/recycling