There are loved ones in the glory
Whose dear forms you often miss.
When you close your earthly story,
Will you join them in their bliss?
CHORUS:
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
Is a better home awaiting
In the sky, in the sky?
According to Internet sources, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” is a popular Christian hymn written in 1907 by Ada R. Habershon with music by Charles H. Gabriel. The song is often recorded unattributed and, because of its age, has lapsed into the public domain.
In more recent times, a number of country artists have recorded a version with different lyrics.
The lyrics of the original hymn seem especially evocative when you think of Hatteras Island?s circle ? a circle of stones, the large, heavy granite stones that mark the footprint of the 1870 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse before it was moved away from the encroaching ocean.
The stones commemorate the 83 keepers of the Hatteras Light, celebrating their lives and service. Preserving their memory and the original location of the light is important to islanders and visitors, but it?s especially important to the descendants of the lightkeepers.
The stones have become a sacred site of its own on the island, the site of weddings, memorial services, christenings, Easter sunrise services, and other important ceremonies.
I have written in this blog last year and last month on the current condition of the circle of stones. In storm after storm in the past 15 years, the stones have been tossed around and covered with sand by storm tides. The Park Service has uncovered them and moved them back into place. They have been mostly covered by sand since Hurricane Sandy and a series of northeasters in the fall of 2012.
Last spring, the National Park Service said it would uncover the stones one last time and then would let nature take its course at the old lighthouse site, using it as a means of interpreting rising sea levels for visitors.
A second alternative was to move the stones to the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras village.
Both options were very much opposed by members of the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society, which paid almost $12,000 to have the stones engraved, and the Hatteras Island Genealogical and Preservation Society, whose members include many descendants of lightkeepers.
The members of the two societies want the stones preserved, but at a site closer to the light station, perhaps in the open, grassy area between the lighthouse and the keepers? quarters, which now houses a museum.
Through the summer and fall, the Park Service and the two groups exchanged e-mails and phone calls, but little progress was made.
Dawn Taylor, president of the Genealogical and Preservation Society, brought the issue to the attention of U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., late last year. He wrote to seashore Superintendent Barclay Trimble, urging that the stones be preserved and asking Trimble to meet with the parties involved.
Meanwhile, Bett Padgett, president of the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society, said that Cheryl Roberts, a founding member of the group, had recently found some e-mails with park officials about the future of the granite stones.
Padgett said that in the correspondence, the park ?would commit that when the time came, it would move the stones closer to the lighthouse and use them as an amphitheater? to interpret coastal processes.
Last week, Trimble met with Padgett, Catherine Jordan, director of outreach for Jones? office, and Dawn Taylor and the vice-president of her group, Jennifer Farrow Creech, at the circle of stones.
Trimble said that to undercover the stones one last time, they would have to be lifted by a backhoe, the sand smoothed out, and the stone returned to its place.
He agreed that lifting the stones, putting them on a flatbed truck, and moving them a short distance would not cost much more. And he said the job could be done in-house by park maintenance personnel.
?We want to preserve the stones,? he said in a phone interview this week.
The Park Service has invited the two societies to canvass members and to propose a new location and a design for the stones.
Padgett said Trimble told them that the Park Service would prefer they not be left in a circle, lest it might give the impression to visitors that the lighthouse had been moved just a few feet instead of 2,900 feet.
Padgett said the members of her group prefer to keep the stones in a circle, but will work on other designs.
So it seems the Park Service and the groups with a vested interest in the stones are finally on the same page about their future.
You might say the story of the stones has come full circle.
And, if you want to read all of the lyrics from the original hymn, here they are:
MAY THE CIRCLE BE UNBOKEN?
There are loved ones in the glory
Whose dear forms you often miss.
When you close your earthly story,
Will you join them in their bliss?
CHORUS:
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
Is a better home awaiting
In the sky, in the sky?
In the joyous days of childhood
Oft they told of wondrous love
Pointed to the dying Saviour;
Now they dwell with Him above.
(Chorus)
You remember songs of heaven
Which you sang with childish voice.
Do you love the hymns they taught you,
Or are songs of earth your choice?
(Chorus)
You can picture happy gath’rings
Round the fireside long ago,
And you think of tearful partings
When they left you here below.
(Chorus)
One by one their seats were emptied.
One by one they went away.
Now the family is parted.
Will it be complete one day?
(Chorus)
