Wynne church erects new nativity scene in memory of infant

The new nativity scene at St. Peter Church in Wynne is displayed for the community to see during the town's Christmas parade Dec. 3.
The new nativity scene at St. Peter Church in Wynne is displayed for the community to see during the town's Christmas parade Dec. 3.

WYNNE — Justin Kirk Hess was only three months old when he died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. However, the people whose lives he touched are working to ensure that he will never be forgotten.
“The day he died, that morning he was such a happy baby,” his mother Ashley Hess said. “He was lying in his bed and usually he would fuss wanting you to get him up and he was just laying there just watching his little mobile. He was just so peaceful that day.”
Justin, born Sept. 8, 2008, died three months and three days later on Dec. 11. Over the past year, his family has worked to raise funds for a nativity scene to honor him.
His grandmother, Jill Hamrick of Wynne, said the now purchased outdoor nativity scene was donated to their hometown parish, St. Peter Church in Wynne. The donation came just as church members began expressing their need for one.
“I just decided since he died around Christmas I wanted to do something in memory of him, and it came to me,” Justin’s grandmother said. “I knew we didn’t have an outside nativity scene here, and I thought that would be something every year that would be there.”
The family began researching nativity scenes online before making a special trip to Catholic Supply in St. Louis to see different nativity scenes in person.
“We wanted something that could be an outside nativity that everybody could enjoy,” Jill said. “We wanted something life-size so everyone could see it from the road because of the way the road is built out there you are looking down instead of up. When we came across this one, it just felt right.”
It was then that Justin’s parents, Ashley and Jared Hess, siblings, 13-year-old Shanley and 5-year-old Logan, and Jared’s parents, Jill and Mike Hamrick, began their fundraising efforts. The local communities in Cross County and the surrounding area embraced the family’s candy sales, quilt and afghan auctions, yard sales and a fish fry.
“It showed how many friends and how many people came out for this,” his father Jared Hess said, “the love that poured into this.”
It also “showed how many people’s lives he touched the short time he was here,” Mike Hamrick said.
The events paid off, as the family now prepares to place the nativity scene out this year for the first time.
“I hope everyone that looks at this will see Jesus and know that not only is our baby with Jesus, but if they lost a loved one that they are also with Jesus,” Jill Hamrick said. “How appropriate that we lose a baby to have the nativity set of the baby Jesus out there around the same time.”
Ashley Hess said the nativity scene is meant to be a reminder of her son’s life and not the pain following his death.
“I don’t want us to be the ones that people go, ’Didn’t they lose a baby one time? What was that baby’s name?’ I want him to be remembered,” she said. “You know it is such a small community that I think that if we do put something like this out that it would be a reminder every year of his memory.”
The family is currently looking at storage options at the church and is working to find a plaque to acknowledge that the nativity scene’s purpose. Mike Hamrick said donations were also still being accepted for future upkeep. The family is also planning an open house to showcase the nativity scene and to thank the community for helping.

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