The Wreck of the Windfall
Forty-five years ago, a Maine schooner went down with all hands off Bermuda. In South Freeport, remembering the Windfall each year has become an act of faith.
Gerry Boyle
It was a raw November morning, a cold drizzle fell from a flat, gray sky. Inside the white-shingled South Freeport Church, congregants watched as a small woman in her seventies made her way from a seat in a center pew to the lectern. Pat Guild turned to the altar, which she had decorated with hemlock and pine boughs and sprays of orange-berried bittersweet.
This was Windfall Sunday, an annual event in the church and in the small community it serves, just down the road from L.L. Bean. The observance began in 1962, when Guild and her close friend, Jean Schwarz, decorated the altar in just this way. The friends never missed a year, and after Schwarz passed away, Guild continued.
This was Windfall Sunday, an annual event in the church and in the small community it serves, just down the road from L.L. Bean. The observance began in 1962, when Guild and her close friend, Jean Schwarz, decorated the altar in just this way. The friends never missed a year, and after Schwarz passed away, Guild continued.
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