with Jeremy Bradford 1975

I joined The Community in Spring of 1975 and was put to work in Maintenance (being a hardy Canadian lass) focalised by the inimitable Nick Rose.

However, yearning to finally be a construction worker, I was fortunately accepted by Lyle Schnadt, Master Builder focalising the construction team (vs the overall team with architects), onto the, then, all male team.

As a former Canadian Academic, I very much appreciated this natural balancing work-life rhythm. This is to Lyle’s everlasting credit, as he must have had some concerns as I had never done construction work before. He did, however, test my skills and obedience. He set me to work retrieving all the nails off the entire site – no doubt a good safety measure! I had served in the Canadian Air Force and Navy Reserve so I could take orders …

Next, Lyle determined I could handle fire so he set me to work with new member George Caitlin with a blow torch to burn off the bark of the enormous Douglas Fir beams originating from my homeland and British Columbia where I had lived happily for years! To this very day, I always enjoy sitting under them, contemplating that time. Henceforth I was just a regular guy on the team! Eventually I had to leave to focalise the Office as there was no one else to do it.

The following bit of my story about my time on That Team is a bit mysterious, miraculous maybe: we were starting to prepare to hoist the beams upward into their present position when one of the beams toppled (somehow) and appeared to be landing on George Caitlin’s foot, when all of a sudden, time slowed down (for me) and I saw a space between George Caitlin’s foot and some force within me (an Angelic Presence, The Angel of the Hall?) sent a beam of light (!!!) in the ‘space between’ and the wooden beam didn’t quite fall or if it did, nothing happened. We all stopped, nothing was said (as I can recall), and we carried on. George was fine. The entire time we were building Our Universal Hall, I felt Angelic Presences watching over us all…

With Dieter 1979