Columbarium dedicated at BP cemetery

Susan Stankey left behind little information when she died in September 2020.

Her obituary was one line: “Susan Marie Stankey, age 64 of Austin, Minnesota, passed away Sunday, September 6, 2020, at Mayo Clinic Health System in Austin, Minnesota.”

Her legacy, however, is for the ages.

After her death, officials at the First Lutheran Church in Blooming Prairie learned Stankey had remembered the church in her will.

“She didn’t necessarily specify a columbarium,” said Jennifer Wayne, president of the First Lutheran/Westfield Cemetery Association, “but she gave money from her estate and asked that we use it to make improvements” at both places.

Stankey and her parents are buried at the First Lutheran Cemetery, just east of Blooming Prairie.

Wayne made the comments during the dedication last week of the columbarium there.

“Unless you’ve seen one, or know what it is, you don’t necessarily even know what the word means,” said Rev. Heidi Heimgartner, senior pastor at First Lutheran.

“It comes from the Latin word ‘columba,’ which means a nesting place for doves,” she said. “And if you look at this, you can kind of see how doves might nest in it.”

The columbarium sits on a concrete slab on the east side of the cemetery; a small sidewalk surrounds it and leads up to it.

The granite structure has 24 niches, or vaults, designed for urns containing ashes. Each niche can hold the remains of two. Four of the 48 spots have been sold.

Using a columbarium instead of burial saves the costs of the casket, vault, monument, grave opening, and perpetual care.

Wayne said the cemetery association had looked into providing one “a number of years ago, but it was expensive, and we didn’t have the money.

“The purchase and installation is due to the generosity of Susan Stankey,” she said. “There weren’t a whole lot of improvements we could do, but this was one of the main ideas. We’re very happy to make this a reality.”

The group also installed three benches at First Lutheran cemetery and one at Westfield Cemetery, near its flagpole.

Stankey also bequeathed funds to the Lansing Cemetery and the Mower County Humane Society.

Wayne, who is also vice-president of the congregation at First Lutheran, is joined on the cemetery board by Julie Peterson, Rick Hansen, Scott Sherva, and Brian Hoveland.

Heimgartner chose Psalm 23 for the dedication, as well as a reading from Revelation 7. In her benediction, she asked that “this place be a comfort to the living, a sign of hope for our unending life.”

“I know how grateful the cemetery board is for the generosity that allowed this project,” she said later, “and I think they’ve offered a really simple and beautiful architectural design.”