I was wondering if anyone else does this . I'm working on starting up a widows program in my lodge . I have our Secretary putting a list together of all our widows and we'll have a Master Mason assigned to her . He will check in on her every so often and see if she needs anything or help fixing something amoung other things , then they will report back how they are doing every meeting . Any suggestions on how to make improvements are welcomed .
Windows as in the computer program?, or as in glass??? You mentioned your secretary as a her. Is your lodge co-masonry?
Widows , as in the wife of a dead Mason . And no , I don't agree with the making of a woman a Mason . I was saying that our Lodge secretary is gathering up all the name's of the widows of our Bro's that have passed and assigning a Master Mason to check in on her and make sure she is doing all right . No mention that our secretary is a "her" .
We maintain a widow's list and unoffically keep "tabs" on our widows. Once a year, members of the lodge deliver a food basket to all our widows. We also give each widow a "Widows Pin" to wear if they want.
You need to provide all of your widows with a printed list of masons who would be willing to help her, with tasks. If the yard needs mowing, the car breaks down,etc. You can get plastic refrigerator magnets from www.vistaprint.com for free. Our lodge prepares fruit and gift baskets for all of our widows, and deliver them at Christmastime. We have an annual widow's dance (and appreciation night) every year at the lodge hall. We serve a dinner, and arrange transportation for all of the widows who cannot drive themselves. We have some widowers in our lodge, and sometimes they start up a romance! We also help the widows dispose of masonic jewelry (In case the deceased mason has no masonic relatives). We arrange a sale at a decent price, and deliver the proceeds to the widow.
Our Chaplain takes care of that. We aslo invite them to all our functions, such as Christmas Dinner. Transportation and the costs of the event are obsorbed by the lodge ofcourse.
. I was thinking on larger terms than throwning them a dinner once or twice a year or the baskets . I just never thought that fruit baskets and dinners as truely helping and taking care of our Brothers widows .
These are excellent ideas. I may put them forth in an informal setting this Saturday before our lodge meeting to get a feel of the response to such ideas. Thanks!
How is the program working? I just send a message to W.M. to see if I can do Christmas cards on the Lodges behalf.
Glad you mentioned that. Just talked to the Secretary. He said he has no list of Widows. How did you get yours?
Members gathered them up . Some remained at the same address after the passing of the Borther . It took some time to gather as many as we could . Some widows live out state such as Florida and are harder to find so we may have missed a few .
