Stroll down memory lane...

You can’t quite consider the ship’s deck a lane…but you can definitely stroll along the ship's decks. Unfortunately there isn’t as much deck as there used to be on the ship, seeing as the parts of the deck that rotted had to be replaced- like on Aft Deck. However, promenade deck and the bow remain intact and it was great to walk on deck one last time. Well, they are mostly intact anyway. You know the little round pieces that fit in the deck, about an inch or two in diameter?? I found a couple of loose ones on the ship which I took home as souvenirs…a little piece of deck in my new home.

I don’t really want to get sentimental, but the Anastasis is quite a beautiful ship with a lot of character. Now, I haven’t seen the Africa Mercy yet, but a lot of people say she looks like a box. I’m sure she’ll be highly functional and provide excellent services for the poorest in Africa, but she probably won’t have the class and style the Anastasis has. Of course, I am biased having grown up on the Anastasis. Being able to walk around the ship again was a privilege, I realize that. And I know there are many people who would love to walk the decks one last time. Anyway, while walking around I noticed so many pieces of art that are probably not seen by the majority of people that walk around on the ship; pieces of art that I’ve grown up with. Hopefully these artifacts will be kept in a special place as the legacy of the Anastasis continues; maybe in a Mercy Ships museum?? The ship may be scrapped, but her legacy lives on.

I guess for me the hardest is that I will never again be able to show some one where I grew up. I know that most people don’t take others to houses they grew up in…but at least most people can drive through the town they lived in, point out a school or a favorite building etc, but that won’t be possible for me. My home will be gone, forever. Not just my ‘house’, but my community, the ship village I grew up in. It’ll be a tough place to have to describe to someone one day as it is such a unique place to live.

Here are a few reminders of the beauty of the Anastasis…