‘It’s the Lord that kept everyone safe’
Woman who escaped New London church collapse heard ‘whoosh’ as steeple came down
NEW LONDON — Teresa Tymes was in her office at Engaging Heaven Church processing bank deposits Jan. 25 when she heard a “whoosh.”
It sounded like snow sliding off the roof after a heavy snowfall, Tymes said, and she figured the ceiling in the worship area had a hole.
The church administrator didn’t know the extent of the damage until later: The steeple toppled, causing the slate roof of the church to collapse, sending granite boulders onto the historic building’s sloping front lawn.
No one was in the worship area of the church, which was connected to Tymes’ office in an adjoining, more modern building behind it. Nobody was injured.
“It’s the Lord” that kept everyone safe, said Tymes, of Stonington. “It’s definitely the Lord.”
By Friday, eight days later, the church had been razed, with the exception of the back wall it shares with Tymes’ office building and the 1975 structure itself. Mountains of stone — one at least 20 feet high — stood where services once were held. The Engaging Heaven Church shared the building with the First Congregational Church of New London.
Whether the offices and dining area in the newer, brick building can be used again remains unknown, Tymes said. For now, she uses her “mobile office” — her car.
Sunday services are temporarily being held at the Garde Arts Center (Sunday’s is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m.). First Congregational Church, which has fewer members, has been holding services in the home of a parishioner.
Engaging Heaven didn’t miss a morning feeding breakfast to those experiencing homelessness, however, Tymes said. Starting the morning after the collapse, church volunteers have been serving the weekday meals a few blocks away at The Salvation Army.
The church would like to rebuild at the site, she said. A GoFundMe fundraiser had raised more than $60,000 of a $1 million goal for construction.
As the slow process of rebuilding gets underway, Tymes is able to keep a positive attitude. The 44-yearold, whose job includes maintenance as well as clerical duties — “I do all the things” — was able to make church leaders chuckle when she announced that she didn’t have to mow the lawn anymore.
How can she have a cheery disposition?
“The building was not the church. It was just a building,” Tymes said.
‘It’s a lot bigger hole than I thought’
Tymes was thinking of leaving work early that Thursday afternoon. She figured she could finish what else needed to be done on Friday.
“I was going to make the bank deposits. I was going to dye my hair and I was going to lay in bed eating Cheetos,” she said.
But then she heard “whoosh” followed by voices on the street next to the church and, when she went outside, people were yelling for her to get out of the
building because it was falling down.
“I was like, ‘The building’s not falling down.’ In my head, it’s a hole,” she said. “‘Stop being dramatic,’ ” Tymes said she wanted to tell them.
Still, she decided to check the sanctuary.
She returned to her office and walked into the 5-footlong hallway that connects it with the worship area. When she opened the door to the church, Tymes realized it wasn’t a small hole.
“It’s a lot bigger hole than I thought,” she said.
Tymes didn’t realize what had happened,
though. She was looking at the back of the church, which was intact.
“You still can’t see that the steeple has fallen,” she said.
When Tymes went out a different door on the other side of the building, she saw Connecticut College students who live at the neighboring Manwaring Apartments staring at her.
“They’re looking at me, and I’m looking at them, and we’re looking at the rubble and I was like, ‘Oh. OK.’ ”
But she still didn’t know the extent of the collapse and started to make her
way to the front of the building. Before she could get there, first responders joined the chorus of people yelling at her to leave the property.
She briefly defied their orders, going back into her office to get her purse and cellphone before walking out, she said.
It wasn’t until Tymes walked all the way to the front of what once was the church that she realized it was mostly gone.
“I was like, ‘OK, I need to call people,’ ” she said.
Tymes didn’t shed a tear until the next day, when a structural engineer and fire
official carefully accompanied her back into the office to allow her to remove some important items, such as her computer, she said.
She realized she might not ever be allowed to return.
“The finality of it” struck her, Tymes said. “I was teary.”
But mostly, Tymes, Pastor Bob Nicholls, other church leaders and members of the congregation of 115 are optimistic.
“We know we’re called to do what God wants us to do,” Tymes said, “so we will continue without a building.”