Two Lutheran's and a Communist: Mom's Story

* The following entry is the first in a three-part series of articles that I wrote, while in college, about my family's religious history. I've been looking over papers I wrote during that time, and have found some really interesting pieces that I have no recollection of writing.

Frank Shirk’s parents were part of the Reformed LBS in Freemont, Indiana. His mother was extremely devout, but religious practice was never pressed upon Frank or his brothers and sisters. Before moving to California in 1952, his mother broke with the church, believing them too liberal. In California, she joined the Baptists, still keeping her religious practice mostly to herself.

After High School, Frank joined the Marines to fight WWII. In a way, this was Frank Hartley’s first experience with the pious devotion necessary for religious practice. The military, after all, requires allegiance and faith - aspects of every religious tradition. During his four-year stint in the military, Frank served primarily in the South Pacific, occasionally docking in Northern Washington.

LaVerne Lahren recalls vividly remembers the day she met Frank Shirk. She was strolling with her sister in Point Defiance Park, when a handsome Marine approached and asked her to dinner. LaVerne recalls, "I went, but ended up paying the bill." It is surprising that Frank and LaVerne eventually married, considering paying for a spoiled Marine was a luxury my grandmother could barely afford.

LaVerne’s parents were from two different Scandanavian countries and Lutheran synods. LaVerne’s father was an engineer for the railroad; her mother was a homemaker. Her father developed skin cancer from overexposure to sun on the job sites. He died when LaVerne was very young. She recalls her mother’s frequent visits to the Mayo clinic for her father’s skin treatments. Twelve years after Louis’s death, her mother developed Leukemia from exposure to her husband’s cancer treatments and died shortly afterward. LaVerne was an orphan by the age of sixteen.

LaVerne’s relatives were only able to support her until she finished high school, but post-graduation, she was on her own. LaVerne applied to Pacific Lutheran University’s nursing program. The university offered women full scholarships, including room and board, if they entered the four-year nursing program. LaVerne met Frank while still in school.

After Frank and LaVerne married, Frank was baptized into the Lutheran faith and began taking religious classes. It wasn’t until LaVerne had her first children that the Shirks began attending church regularly. Church offered them a strong support network and social opportunity at a time when costly leisure was more than they could afford. Many of Frank and LaVerne’s lifelong friends came from their early church days. Nancy, the Shirk’s second child, recalls feeling very comfortable and at home in their church friends’ homes.

Throughout Nancy’s teenage years, the church was a center for community and friendship. At fourteen, Nancy entered confirmation classes to receive communion. The church’s "Junior League" was an important part of her early life.

At first, Nancy felt pressured by her family into going to church. She soon discovered that she existed as her own pressure. LaVerne and Frank were not always available to take the kids to church: LaVerne worked nights as a nurse (despite Nancy’s observation that she was "most comfortable as a stay-at-home mom") and Frank was often away on business trips. Nancy found that if she wanted to go to church, she would have to take herself. She calls this time the "time of excuses," where Nancy constantly made up reasons for not going, but always felt that she should have. Nancy was often envious of her sister’s piety and devotion to church, something Nancy did not feel.

During her freshman year of college, Nancy attended a Lutheran church in the area while her friends all attended campus inter-denominational church. However, the winter snow and exams sucked up all of her energy and eventually she stopped attending church. "The usual excuses," she says.