Meet John and Rebecca Fisher
The
room looked like an abandoned wine cellar with dirty linoleum tiles and
too many neon lights. A few small underground windows displayed dirt.
Someone with more optimism than common sense had suggested to Rebecca
and John Fisher that they turn the large rock-walled room into a cozy
and inviting setting for a formal dinner and a play.
A few days later and voila.
John had conquered the obnoxious lighting with home-made filters,
reconstructed the shattered stage with paint and coffee cans. Rebecca
tamed the walls with slight-of-hand decorating and soft lighting.
And those prisonesque windows? No problem. She painted on drapes
and flowers.
Quiet, determined, intelligent, self-effacing and above all,
imaginative and caring. The Fishers. What they accomplished for last
year’s St. Peter’s “Gourmet Dinner-Theater and Silent Auction” was
unusual also in that they weren’t allowed to quietly slip into the
background and move on to the next project. During all the applause they
both looked like they were in pain. During an interview for this story
they looked like they were waiting for a dental appointment.
Maybe they were just pressed for time.
John is on the church’s vestry as head of grounds and
maintenance. He is also an usher for the 10 a.m. service and one of the
most counted-on male volunteers in the parish. He has taken on handyman
assignments and works in sales for Don Kahan Chevrolet in Lee’s Summit.
Rebecca serves with the Altar Guild, the Gardening Angels, is an
Eucharistic minister and is organizing this year’s “Baobab Bash”
festival to kick off the Sunday School term.
They met at a freshman party his fraternity was hosting while
they were both students at Baker University. Rebecca said she was
impressed but had another motive for agreeing to out with John again.
“He had a sports car and I wanted to ride in it,” she insists.
After a long-distance relationship (he left Baker for Penn Valley
and she was at Pittsburg State) they were married in 1968. He was
drafted in 1969 and joined the Navy. While he was attending radar
technician school (from which he graduated at the top of his class)
Rebecca was stuck in a tiny apartment in downtown San Francisco.
“He forbad me from leaving the apartment during the day because
he thought it was too dangerous,” smiles Rebecca. “I’ve changed since
then. More liberated.” John shrugs straight-faced: “It WAS too
dangerous”.
There followed assignments in Norfolk, Va., and Chula Vista and
Long Beach, Ca. Like most young Navy wives, Rebecca was busy surviving
with new children and Navy enlisted pay while John was at sea. Daughter
Amie was born in Norfolk (1970) and her sister Shelley was born in Long
Beach (1973).
John’s Navy hitch was up in 1973 and they returned to Kansas City
(they were both born in K.C.K. and raised in Johnson County…she
graduated from Shawnee Mission North HS, he from Shawnee Mission East).
John went to work for the family business, Charlie Fisher Buick, in
downtown KC, Mo. Son Timothy was born here in 1975 and his sister
Jennifer in 1981. The years went by, the children grew and the two
continued their Christian journey.
In 2004 Charlie Fisher Buick was sold and by 2006 it had gone out
of business. John began a home construction business with son Timothy
and earlier this year he also returned to the retail auto business,
working for Don Kahan.
Rebecca says there never was any question about where her family
would be centered.
“(John) had to be a church-goer or I wouldn’t marry him,” she
says with her characteristic assurance. “My father would always ask, by
the third date whoever I was dating, what church he went to.”
“So I started going to church,” adds John. “I grew up sort of
Methodist but my parents weren’t that regular.” Rebecca was baptized and
grew up in Trinity Lutheran Church in Mission.
The Fishers came to St. Peter’s from the Cathedral in 2006. The
power went off their first Sunday. Obviously St. Peter’s needed John.
Asked what it means to be a Christian, John doesn’t hesitate.
“My mother always preached the Golden Rule. Whether we went to
church or not, I always tried to live that rule.”
“I was raised a Christian,” says Rebecca quietly. “I believe in
God. I can’t imagine leading any other kind of life. We have roots….you
can go a long, long way away but the roots will bring you back.”
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