Today’s my great-grandfather’s birthday.* Henry William Schaperkotter was born in 1908 & passed in 1993. We were close, and I’m thankful that he got to hold my child a few days before he died.

There are lots of things about him that I loved, but today I’m thinking about his story of the last time he was in a church.

He was the son of recent immigrants (I’m not actually sure if his mother was pregnant when she arrived with him or if he was a babe in arms), living in a small town in Michigan. When he was growing up, everyone went to church.

When he was a very young man, he listened to the preacher rail against dancing. Apparently, some teenagers had done it at a social event. Three of the girls–and the preacher was focused on the girls–were sitting in the front. As they learned of their upcoming eternal torment, they sobbed.

Bill stood up, which would have been noticeable, since he was 6’5″ or so, and told the preacher he should be ashamed of using God to scare good people.

He left, and never looked back.

*He was technically my step-great-grandfather, but he’s spiritually in my blood and fully in my heart, and he helped raise me, and we don’t take kindly to folks who would argue that he’s not my Grandpa.

Note: one eye is off kilter, because it was glass. I wish I knew that story!