[1]A booklet like this one, along with holy water and a wooden crucifix with a handmade wooden base are among the items inside a straw-colored bag which was stolen from a vehicle at St. Mary Catholic Church.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CENTRALIA – At least two cars were broken into on Sunday in the parking lot of a Centralia church during the morning service.
In one case the window was smashed and a purse taken, but from the other, something perhaps more valuable was stolen.
It happened between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. during mass at St. Mary Catholic Church on North Washington Avenue.
Eighty-six-year-old Esther Haubrick for years has volunteered her time giving Holy Communion to shut-ins around town.
On Sundays, directly after church, she visits six individuals who are too sick to attend services.
“They wait for me, it’s kind of nice,” she said. “But I love doing it, it’s just my blessing.”
Yesterday, when she went to her car to re-stock her communion kit with the wafers, called the “host” for each of her people, the bag was gone, she said.
“I went back inside and said guess what, someone took my bag out of my car,” she said.
Haubrick didn’t wait around for police, she had to go explain to her people why she couldn’t give them communion, she said.
Her daughter-in-law Sherry Haubrick went to the area, near West Maple Street and took a look around the neighborhood and the cemetery there. She’s hoping the thieves after realizing there was no wallet, no money, tossed the tan colored straw bag in the bushes.
Besides the special white cloth to arrange her items on, the bag contained a copy of the little blue “Communion of the Sick” booklet which Esther Haubrick reads from, holy water, and a wooden cross with a wooden base her late husband made for her.
“He made a little block, so the crucifix would stand up,” she said. Her husband died in 1999.
“So, you know, things have a little meaning to you, sentimental meaning,” she said.
Esther Haubrick said she’s always parked in the same spot, and it hasn’t occurred to her to lock up her vehicle while it’s at a church.
“I’ve been doing this for 20, well I’m sure at least 15 years,” she said. “It’s the first time I’ve had any problems.”
She described the cross as about eight inches tall. The bag is perhaps a foot long and 10 inches tall with two wooden handles, she said.
Sherry Haubrick is hoping folks in the area might check their yards so the cross and its base can be returned to her mother-in-law.
“It just sickens me, while they were in church, someone’s there stealing their stuff,” she said.