Updating Our Lady Queen of Peace history began more than eight years ago during conversations with Marie and Dick Higgins and Marie's brother, Archbishop George Pearce. They had so many stories about the early days before there was a church building, about the years of growth and about the names in the sanctuary and chapel windows. We produced a video called “Our Lady Queen of Pieces I” vowing to produce a second in the near future. Additional stories began to be collected with Ed Donohoe's version of Our Lady's history as the guideline. Life and death intervened. Three years ago when Our Lady became one of seven churches in a parish that spans geography from Brunswick to Richmond to Newcastle, parish leadership put out a call to combine and update each church history to reflect the new relationship among the churches for the new parish redesigned website. St. Mary in Bath was the first completed work. St. Patrick in Newcastle was next. Now, Our Lady is live with her own very personal story.

Contributions

I wish to thank and recognize everyone who, in the last three years, shared their stories and trusted me with their family treasures long enough to digitize them. A huge thank-you is due a gentleman by the name of Jack Henderson from St. Mary in Bath who receives and reshapes everything, copy and images, for the parish web histories. He has been a close collaborator for three years, never pulling any punches about what was written and what should be "tweaked." If I ever write a book I hope there will be an editor just like him for catching and molding.

Locally, how does one say thank you to people like Pat Wheeler who made calls, invited people to early morning Lenten gatherings to browse through Our Lady's scrapbooks, and sustained continued interest and encouragement in long periods of waiting? And Wilma Tatlock who worked so hard to make sure everyone who had ever given to Our Lady was remembered on her 75th anniversary? And Chip Griffin who always loves a good story? Thank you, thank you to those who helped identify people in pictures and shared their personal stories and treasures: Marie McLellan, Kay Hallinan Lewis, Bob Carbone, Jean Thompson, the Burnhams, Ray Shadis, Claire Johnson, Barbara Fossett, Vivienne Daniels, Lynn Cartwright, Jay and Marie Warren, Tom Carbone, Isabelle Lewis, Grace and Henry Rowe, the Higgins family. Each contribution has been lovingly included.

As always for my local legacy projects, a mountain of thanks is always deserved by the Boothbay Register. Whether it was a personal search in the Register archives or scanning clippings from personal collections, the value of a local newspaper that has a big heart for little stories is truly priceless. People have stashed away things printed for decades, their clippings saved with their prized possessions. The Register accounts in Our Lady's web history certainly enrich the historical landscape.

Finally, I am indebted to the beautiful pictures taken by Father Dinga, by my husband Rick, and by Bob Mitchell. Among the pictures and images and stories one will find those who have stayed on, moved on and passed on as well as those who have shown up and grown up in Our Lady's stay on the peninsula.

Organized by decades, research materials, copies of original artifacts from Our Lady's archives and digitalized photos files will be donated to Boothbay Region Historical Society very soon. Hopefully, future researchers will find access and direction in its collection and anyone wanting to add to the history will have a place to put their work.

It is fitting that this project was completed during November, a month that begins with All Saints and All Souls days and the month when all those who have gone before us are remembered in a special way. It has been an honor to listen to and collect the love through the history of Our Lady Queen of Peace.

View the history at www.allsaintsmaine.com/our-lady-queen-peace-history/.