Stubbornness is often said

To be a trait we all should dread.

Sometimes though it’s plain to see

It watches over you and me.

Look at the beauty a lighthouse gives

Brightening shores where’ ere you live,

We take for granted that pretty sight

When seen by day, but what by night?

Storms roll in to blast the shore

And seem the worst when people snore.

When most people go to bed

There still is a lot to be said.

Lighthouse keepers look up to skies of gray.

Storm clouds make the moon go away.

Seas roll in, smashing water high

As if raining upward into the sky.

Temperatures fall, making water ice.

All burrow in, even the mice.

Ice coats sidewalks, catwalks, rails,

Windows and foghorn, stopping the mails.

When pea soup fog came rolling in

Engines were cut amid foghorns’ din.

Flu season be damned, they went about

Assuring their horn’s mighty shout.

Summer, winter, spring and fall

Regardless of weather, through it all

Lighthouse keepers tended lights and horn.

From all dangers, strangers were warned.

Anonymous lighthouse keepers kept the watch

Whether healthy or well, battening the hatch.

Lesser men couldn’t take what they got,

But lighthouse keepers were a stubborn lot.

More men would have died, and women too,

If lighthouse keepers relied on brew.

Instead they faithfully kept light and horn

Through the night and into the morn.

Their faith in God and service to man

Stand many times taller than

The tallest lighthouse tower you see

As a tower of power for you and me.

So while you pass a lighthouse tower

Think of behind the scene power

Of a stubborn man braving nature’s fury

Protecting strangers, no favor to curry.

Loneliness broken by wife and kids,

To some it would be hitting the skids.

Lighthouse keepers stayed firm on the rock,

Sometimes with a boat on the dock.

Lighthouse keepers were saving souls

By light, horn, and boat, what’ ere nature doles.

Thanks were anonymous as sailors passed by

But better that, than for sailors to die.

The Lighthouse Service filled a great need.

Motivated by service, never by greed.

Though they reached the end of their time

It would positively be a crime

If we didn’t take the time to say

“Thank you for being there night and day.

As you retire and take your rest

Know your example was of man’s best.”

We kids who lived in lights with you

Could see firsthand all you do,

Your coping with every kind of strife

Taught we kids how to deal with life.

Michael Bauchan is the son of Louis Bauchan, one of the last surviving Keepers of the U.S. Lighthouse Service.

This story appeared in the December 2001 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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