WASILLA, ALASKA: WHERE THAT LONESOME WHISTLE BLOWS

Pulled by an Alaska Railroad SD70MAC diesel locomotive, the northbound Princess Cruises/Holland American tour train passes by a baptism ceremony conducted in the waters of Wasilla Lake by the Emmanuel Slavic Church. The congregation is made up primarily of Slavik speakers originally from Ukraine and some from Russia.

I was atop the hill on the other side of the lake where I had come to take another Wasilla Malibu picture when I spotted people just beginning to gather behind the Wasilla Malibu dock. They looked very tiny from there, both to my unassisted eye and on the monitor of the remote controller I use to fly Gepetto, my DJI Air 3 drone. I saw a woman dressed in white and thought there would be a wedding.

Instead, there was a baptism.

Angelika Nakhaychuck, a young woman of Ukrainian heritage new to Wasilla was there with her mother Anna. Angelika identified the young woman in white as Amelia Gedz alongside her brother Daniel Gedz. They were “getting Baptized in Jesus’ name, showing a sign to the world that they are followers of Christ and He is their Savior.”

She and her mother invited me to attend services at their chapel and offered a very nice blessing for me and my family.

I drained one full 46-minute battery and a big portion of another before the train arrived and then it gave me a fraction of a second to snap the photo. During this time the congregation and clergy stood on the bank as speeches and prayers I could not hear were spoken and offered. I still thought it was a wedding. I feared it would end and the people would disperse before the train arrived.

When finally I heard the whistle, still miles away, the services seemed to end. The people began to move away - not to leave as I feared but toward the baptism. After all this time spent waiting, this beautiful moment is the moment I was given to snap the photo.

6/26/24