CT@Prayer: Waterbury Church Sets A High Bar For Others

There should be more Jo-Anne Plunske’s in this world, and there should be more parishes like St. John’s Episcopal Church in Waterbury.

Every Sunday morning, unfailingly, Plunske can be seen sitting in her wheelchair in the front row of the sanctuary, with her service dog Theo, lying dutifully at her side.

I first learned of St. John’s in 2008, when I lived in Waterbury, and decided to worship there one Sunday morning. The church was stunning, the homily was touching, and the music was pleasant. As I sat in the pew during communion I found myself watching as the lay leaders helped Plunske to her feet and assisted her to the altar rails. Her dog put his front paws on the step and wagged his tail, knowing that he too would get a holy wafer. It was that scene that kept me going to St. John’s until I moved out of Waterbury last year. It showed the church’s true spirit.

Until a week or so ago I never thought twice about how Plunske got to church each week. I didn’t realize that she had a 16-year-old Ford handicap van that she relied on to get to and fro. Late last month, while driving on I-84, her van died. Ford doesn’t make the parts anymore and to replace the van could cost upwards of $20,000 – money that Plunske doesn’t have. So the church is stepping up by hosting a Spaghetti dinner for her on June 11.

Tracy Simmons

Rewind back to the communion scene.

The dog that I saw at the altar rails wasn’t Theo. It was Luke and Luke meant the world to Plunske. The Golden Retriever originally belonged to her son, who had a disease that put him in a wheelchair in 1997.

Plunske became wheelchair-bound more than a decade earlier when she fell onto railroad tracks, breaking several bones in her neck and back and causing a traumatic brain injury, ultimately stripping Plunske of senses to taste and smell.

When they got Luke as a service dog in the late 90s, he at once became a part of the family – sleeping on the bed with Mike and making sure he was OK. Luke even saved Mike’s life one night and was honored by the New England ASPCA.

Plunske remembers when she first realized that Luke would come to touch many lives besides her families.

“After three weeks in the intensive care unit at Waterbury Hospital, we knew we were losing the battle,” she said.

People would go to the nursing station and ask if Luke could come visit their loved one down the hall. So when Mike passed in 2004, Plunske trained Luke to be a therapy dog.

For six years she and Luke visited hospitals and rest homes throughout Connecticut, helping people forget for a moment that they were sick, and instead soak in Luke’s innocent bliss.

Through Luke, Mike was still alive.

Luke and Plunske had almost 1,500 therapy hours when Luke passed away last year at 12 years old.

It was like losing Mike all over again.

“It hit me the hardest than anything has ever hit me in my life,” Plunske said.

More than 180 people came to Luke’s funeral at St. John’s. Mike’s ashes are interred there, and Luke’s ashes were spread there.

When she had her van, Plunske came to the church regularly to visit them both and say good morning.

She volunteers through Eastern Star and wears several hats at St. John’s. But not being able to get to the church and say good morning to her son, she says, is the hardest part of being stuck at home.

Her wheelchair doesn’t fold, so it’s difficult for her friends to chauffer her. So for now, she and Theo, her young golden retriever/white Labrador retriever mix, are homebound together.

But Plunske has a solid attitude. If it’s God’s will, she says, then somehow she’ll get a van again and she’ll be able to train Theo to be a therapy dog, like Luke was.

The spaghetti dinner will be June 11 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the church, 16 Church St. in Waterbury. A $10 donation is requested. The church is encouraging people to buy the $10 dinner, and give it to Waterbury’s needy.

Anyone interested in helping can also send a donation to the Jo-Anne Plunske Handicap Van Fund in care of Naugatuck Savings Bank, 670 Main Street South, Woodbury, CT 06798.

Help Mike and Luke live on by helping in this fundraiser.

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