The lovely little shed recently erected in Niverville’s Heritage Cemetery was created in memory of, and with a donation from, Alvin and Marilyn Podjan, longtime residents of Niverville.
Heritage Cemetery is owned by two different churches. The northern half belongs to the Niverville CMC Church and the southern half is both owned and maintained by the Niverville United Church (NUC).
Myra Kehler, a member of the United Church as well as the committee that maintains their portion of the cemetery, says that the Podjans were deeply committed to their church family.
Alvin Podjan passed away in 2009, and his wife followed in 2016. The pair bequeathed funds to the United Church to be used specifically towards care of Heritage Cemetery.
Kehler explains that the committee in charge of the cemetery knew the property needed a new shed in which to store the equipment used to maintain it. So they decided to use the Podjans’ donation for that purpose.
The committee didn’t want to just create any shed, though. They wanted to create something special.
In 1987, Marilyn Podjan wrote a booklet about the history of the United Church for the church’s eightieth anniversary. On the cover, she featured a drawing that had been found in the archives of the original church building. The committee modelled their new shed after this depiction, a wee church, to honour the church that the couple held so dear.
Alvin and Marilyn were married in 1967 and settled in Niverville. They raised their two daughters and built a business, Al’s Plumbing & Service Ltd., which served the community for 40 years.
The Podjans were devoted both to their town and to the United Church and Kehler feels they deserve recognition for their devotion and contributions over the years to the care and maintenance of Heritage Cemetery.
“We thought it was kind of a lovely story to tell,” Kehler says. “There’s a little bit of history, and I think a lot of people in Niverville think that the cemetery is not being used when it actually is. We still have grave sites, we still have urn sites, we are a functioning cemetery, and we hope to make it a lovely setting that people see as they drive or walk by Main Street. And the Podjans deserve to have their names go out there one more time for the kindness of their donation.”
