He builds a chapel by the river where he had a vision of Jesus

Pat Hymel is located on the pier in front of the river chapel Our Lady of the Blind, along the Blind River in the parish of St. James, The chapel was built decades ago by her parents, Martha Deroche and her husband Bobby, after Martha had a vision of Jesus kneeling on a rock.

Among the gum trees and cypresses of a southeastern Louisiana swamp, where Spanish moss hangs from the branches and bald eagles and osprey soar, lies a small chapel called Our Lady of Blind River - the legacy of a woman's faith.

The one-room chapel was built decades ago after Martha Deroche said she had a vision of Jesus kneeling on a rock, and over the years it became a spiritual retreat for passing sailors, kayaks, hunters and fishermen who plow the placid waters of the river. Time and weather have damaged the structure and Martha and her husband are dead, but a new generation of the family is determined to preserve it for future travelers to once again enjoy a peaceful place for prayer.

"The only way to get here is by boat," said Martha Pat Hymel's daughter, sitting in one of the chapel pews. "I think this is why it was so special for a lot of people… to be surrounded by nature, in an area of ​​such beauty."

In the late 70s, when Martha and her husband, Bobby, moved to their hunting camp along the Blind River, named for the many turns that make it impossible to see around the corner, Martha was concerned about how she would be able to attend church regularly.

But then came a vision of Jesus kneeling on a rock. That vision, Martha told Bobby, was that Jesus was saying he needed to build a church there. So, on Easter Sunday 1983, Martha and Bobby - who luckily was a carpenter - got to work.

It became a community project, Pat said recently one morning as she browsed through a photo album showing neighbors and friends who helped make Martha's vision a reality.

“They got together and came and helped. And that was a beauty in itself, ”Pat said.

They laid the floor joists and raised a roof and a bell tower. They have carved benches of cypresses and hand-chiselled the cypress tiles. In the center of the chapel is a statue of the Virgin Mary which is found inside a hollowed out cypress that was extracted from the swamp. The hall is decorated with paintings of Jesus or other religious scenes, rosaries and crosses.

When the chapel was finished in August 1983, a priest came to dedicate it in a ceremony attended by neighbors and friends in their boats.

It has since hosted weddings, visitors from as far away as Israel and England, and an archbishop. Pat said her mother was generally there to greet them, distribute rosaries or candles, and ask them if they wanted him to pray for them or if they wanted to write a special prayer.

Many visitors who were not Catholics asked Martha if they could enter the chapel. Pat said her mom assured them they could.

“He said this place is for everyone,” said Pat. "It meant a lot to her to have people come here, and whether they stay a minute or an hour, it doesn't matter."

Bobby Deroche died in 2012 and Martha the following year. Now Pat's son, Lance Weber, who has a small house next door, takes care of the chapel. The years and the climate of southern Louisiana have not been kind. The chapel was repeatedly flooded and in need of extensive repair work. For the past two years or so, Lance has kept the chapel closed to most visitors for safety reasons.

Last summer he built a new dock for boats with donated composite boards and mounted support poles that will help support the chapel when it will lift it from future floods. Then he will start repairing the floor and tackling other projects. All the necessary tools - everything from heavy rafters to ripping, screws and bags of concrete - must be transported on Lance's 4,6-meter flat boat.

He plans to build a pier specifically for kayaks on the side of the chapel. And he would like to repeat something his grandparents did when the chapel was first built. Those who helped build it wrote special prayers on pieces of paper that Martha and Bobby collected and kept in the bell tower. Lance intends to take them out, wrap them in a waterproof container, and then ask everyone who helps him with repairs to write their prayers. He'll put them all back together in the bell tower.

Lance grew up visiting his grandparents on the river, and the chapel was a constant from his childhood. His grandmother rang the church bell on Sunday mornings to call him from wherever he was fishing so they could watch church services on TV.

Over the decades it has noticed some changes in the surrounding swamp: high water and waves from boat traffic have eroded the tree line and widened the river channel, but otherwise everything is pretty much the same. And he wants to keep it that way.

“Now that I'm older, I'm trying to preserve it for my kids, their kids and grandchildren and everything in between,” she said.