Crowded antique shop puts Virgin Mary statue in parking lot, worshipers start showing up to pray
There’s something about Mary.
An antique store owner who didn’t have room in his shop for a recently acquired Virgin Mary statue was caught by surprise when passersby started pulling over to worship before the four-foot tall icon after he put in his parking lot.
"People come and stop to reflect, meditate and do their thing,” David Cooke told the Times Record of Brunswick, Maine.
The Phippsburg shop’s proprietor isn’t Catholic, but his wife Maggie, who reportedly died in 2016, was. The shop is called Maggie’s Bygone
It has just taken on a life of its own,” he said of the pop-up shrine.
Cooke said the statue had resided at the home of an elderly woman before it came into his possession. He set the nearly life-size monument on a patch of grass in his parking lot, rather than keeping it indoors, where it would take up too much space.
He soon started noticing that people were pulling over to pray to his statue. One motorist left a set of rosary beads behind so others could participate in that method of worship. He said that one potential buyer offered to purchase the statue — but she insisted it would have to remain parked outside Cooke’s shop.
Touched by the significance the statue has taken on in his seaside community, the collector decided not to sell the statue to that customer or to anyone else. He will, however, keep it right where it is for all to see.
A local artist offered to put a fresh coat of paint on the weathered statue. The belt of Mary’s robe was painted purple because that was Maggie’s favorite color.
"The happiness I feel inside all the time, because of all these nice people who are helping restore her, it’s all positive energy,” Cooke told the Times Record. “I feel guilty to feel so happy.”
There’s something about Mary.
An antique store owner who didn’t have room in his shop for a recently acquired Virgin Mary statue was caught by surprise when passersby started pulling over to worship before the four-foot tall icon after he put in his parking lot.
"People come and stop to reflect, meditate and do their thing,” David Cooke told the Times Record of Brunswick, Maine.
The Phippsburg shop’s proprietor isn’t Catholic, but his wife Maggie, who reportedly died in 2016, was. The shop is called Maggie’s Bygone
It has just taken on a life of its own,” he said of the pop-up shrine.
Cooke said the statue had resided at the home of an elderly woman before it came into his possession. He set the nearly life-size monument on a patch of grass in his parking lot, rather than keeping it indoors, where it would take up too much space.
He soon started noticing that people were pulling over to pray to his statue. One motorist left a set of rosary beads behind so others could participate in that method of worship. He said that one potential buyer offered to purchase the statue — but she insisted it would have to remain parked outside Cooke’s shop.
Touched by the significance the statue has taken on in his seaside community, the collector decided not to sell the statue to that customer or to anyone else. He will, however, keep it right where it is for all to see.
A local artist offered to put a fresh coat of paint on the weathered statue. The belt of Mary’s robe was painted purple because that was Maggie’s favorite color.
"The happiness I feel inside all the time, because of all these nice people who are helping restore her, it’s all positive energy,” Cooke told the Times Record. “I feel guilty to feel so happy.”
