Goodbye to the historic Provo tabernacle (for now)

During the Christmas break, we lost an old friend. I don't know why I was especially sad about this loss, other than it's hard to see an historic structure just go up in flames like that and take with it a lot of memories and meaning. When we lived in Provo, we attended stake conference in this beautiful building. It had a balcony and it was fun to climb the spiral stair case to get to our hard-small-uncomfortable-pioneer-era-wooden seats. But somehow that is what made it special and a way to connect with the short-small-petite-sturdy-innovative-pioneer-era people who sat in those seats 120 years ago. We attended more than a dozen Christmas performances of The Messiah in that building and it always had a great vantage point to see the performance and listen to the wonderful acoustics to hear every melodic sound. When our kids were little, Rick would take them on a Saturday adventure. Often they would go to the Provo tabernacle and tour the building as if they were out-of-towners seeing it for the first time. My sister Lee attended her BYU graduation ceremonies in that building. And on and on go the memories.
I hope they rebuild it. They have to rebuild it. I'll be an eager contributor.