After my last post discussing my personal connection to the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, MO, I decided it was time to visit my old stomping grounds and see if the place was still standing. It is. None of the stores, save the gift shop, were open. In my lifetime, I don't think I've ever seen the "Royal Desserts" shop in the dark visitors center open, despite the ample seating room within the cavernous entry hall, which had been decorated to look like an outdoor seating area in some cartoon land. There is an Italian restaurant on the complex that I have eaten at before, but I opted to find my dinner somewhere else during my visit, finding it slightly distasteful to consider giving patronage to someplace I find so disturbing. Overall, the complex continues to become more decrepit and unsettling as the years go on, although I was surprised to see many visitors there yesterday.
As I took a family photo for one group of excited patrons, I inquired about if they had ever been to the chapel. They hadn't, and were from a city about three hours north. I told them about how I was from the area and had come back to see if it was like I remembered, which they seemed happy to hear, calling it sweet, although I'm not sure why. It's a mystery to me at all why, outside of those visiting with a sick sense of twisted nostalgia like myself, anyone would be excited to visit a place like this.
I wasn't able to get many photos inside of the main chapel, so unfortunately I can't show the full sized Sistine Chapel mural on the ceiling, more than 30 feet in the air. I opted not to take the guided tour, so I chose to avoid the cluster of gawking onlookers huddled in that room.
I looked for my name in the old guest books, but I couldn't find it. It's shocking in a way to see so many of them, and even more so to see just how many people signed it on the day I visited. I expected it to be deserted. In all ways except literally, the place is abandoned.
I signed the book, 8/3/22.