A Carpenter takes care of the Carpenter

By Tanya Connor |  The Catholic Free Press

For more than 40 years Robert Dymon has been tending to Jesus and his cross atop the holy stairs at St. Anne Shrine in Sturbridge. On his own time. At his own expense.
Mr. Dymon, of Dymon Enterprises Inc. in Holland, recently erected a new cross for the third time.  
While on the ladder that day he patted the man on the cross, saying affectionately, “My Buddy.”


 “Not everybody gets to do that,” the workman concluded, before descending from the 23-foot-high cross. But both agreed to tell The Catholic Free Press their story.
Mr. Dymon said he visited the shrine as a child with his grandparents. His wife said her parents took her to the shrine. Now she and her husband live nearby in Holland and are members of St. Anne and St. Patrick Parish, where the shrine is located.
“We used to go up to the cross and pray,” Mrs. Dymon said. “Bob’s ‘Bob the Builder,’ and he was inspecting the work and noticed some damage.” (His website is thebobthebuilder.com.)
“Jesus was a carpenter too,” said Mr. Dymon, a general contractor who builds custom homes. “I feel as though he’s my mentor. I’m very honored to be in the same profession as The Boss.”
He guessed that he first volunteered to rebuild the cross and have the body of Christ fixed about 1978.
“He has drain holes in the bottom of his legs … where the nails go through his feet,” Mr. Dymon explained. They were plugged with rust, so Jesus’ legs had filled with water, which froze. The ice expanded, splitting his body.
“He was made in Italy; he was a gift from somebody,” the workman said. “That’s what makes him priceless.” A parishioner and expert welder, now deceased, repaired the corpus at his workplace – CPC Engineering in Sturbridge – he said.
“He had a really hard time … because it was a different kind of cast iron than we would have made in the United States,” Mr. Dymon said. “He got it all put together. … I … brought the wooden cross to CPC and mounted him there. That was the first time I nailed him to the cross. … It kind of hit a nerve. ...
“Can you imagine doing that to a human being? The palms of your hands … I’ve been nailed with a nail gun through my hands,” he said. But that was accidental, not nearly what Jesus suffered.
Mr. Dymon found a way around nailing Christ to the cross again: “I took the heads of the nails off,” and put screws in them to reattach him to the new cross.
Mr. Dymon said the second cross he made was in 2002.
When that cross needed replacing, he got Northern Tree Service of Palmer to take it down for free. After finishing his third cross this summer, he paid Douglas Boyce of Boyce Crane Service in Southbridge and Charlton a little to erect it. The new cross went up on Sept. 1. Mr. Dymon’s right hand man, Charles Furst, helped.
“They did a magnificent job – it’s beautiful,” said Assumptionist Father Alex Castro, pastor. “I’m very thankful.… It’s … their way of contributing to the parish and the shrine. And people admired it.” People also missed it while it was gone. Father Castro said he’d been asked where the crucifix was.
While the cross was down, Mr. Dymon gave Jesus a bath – even on the inside, through a hole in the back.
Mr. Dymon said he took the INRI sign that hangs above Christ to a paint store so they could match the color. After touching up the corpus he gave the shrine the rest of the paint to be used on the figures in the stations of the cross, which parishioner Bradley Ellithorpe had cleaned for his Eagle Scout project this year.
Other people take care of other parts of the shrine, Mr. Dymon said; “my area is the cross.”
Between cross replacements, Mr. Dymon does painting and cleaning as needed, even power washing the 100 feet of steps leading up to the crucifix. He usually goes before Memorial Day to tidy things up. After all, Jesus will be seen by people from around the world; Mr. Dymon has met a number of them.
“He’s maintenance-free for three or four years” now, he said.
Now 67, Mr. Dymon does not expect to build another cross in 20 years.
“I’m hoping my grandson will take it over … keep it in the family,” he said. That grandson, Oliver MacDonald, now 11, helps him, he said.
Mr. Dymon said he’s thankful for the opportunity take care of Jesus and the cross – something most people don’t get to do.
“I have some good conversations up there on that hill with that guy,” he said. “You’re never alone when you’re up there.”
Added his wife, “And when you’re feeling lonely, you can go up.”

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