Gloria and Deacon David Watson. (Courtesy Deacon David Watson)
Hawaii’s permanent deacons
By Deacon David Watson
Special to the Herald
I was born in Washington, Iowa — a small farming community in southeast Iowa where my parents owned a dry-cleaning business. Neither my brother nor I were baptized as infants, and we did not attend church. Our family was not religious in any way but valued family time. We often spent weekends at a cabin that my grandparents owned.
Unlike my older brother, who loved sports and outdoor activities, I was drawn to music and joined the Sunrise Singers when I was in fifth grade. We met weekly before the start of school. I have been connected to music and choirs almost without stopping since that time.
It was music that God used to draw me into the Catholic Church for the first time when I was in junior high school. The local Catholic church, St. James, had a seasonal choir and so for holidays my friends, who were Catholic, would ask me to join them.
Being in a Catholic church was a very spiritual experience for me. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was being drawn to the Catholic faith. It felt like home to me.
When I was in 10th grade, some of my friends invited me to join them for a breakfast fellowship at the Presbyterian church just three blocks from high school. We would meet on Wednesday morning, share a meal and hear and talk about Scripture.
It was from these discussions that I began to feel the need to be baptized.
I approached the Catholic priest and mentioned to him that I wanted to be baptized in the Catholic Church but was told that I could not since I wasn’t “born” Catholic. So, I approached the minister of the Presbyterian church and was joyfully welcomed there. With my parents’ approval, I was baptized and began attending church regularly and, of course, singing with their choir.
During the lowest point in my life, when I had finally had enough of the pain of rejection and self-doubt, I decided to end my life. I was driving down the highway during a rainstorm and was deciding on how I would end my life when suddenly the inside of my car was filled with light.
I tried to look for the break in the clouds where the sun was coming from but there was none. And then I heard in my heart the words that changed my life. I heard, “Your life is not a mistake…I created you for a purpose.” I was filled with warmth, and I knew that it was God who was reaching out to me. This changed my life forever.
I once again approached a Catholic church that was near the campus of the University of Iowa. Gratefully, the priest there was very happy to welcome me although there were no RCIA classes at that time. Instead, I was included in a small group of couples who were preparing for marriage and six short weeks later, in a very private service with my sister-in-law as my sponsor, I finally was allowed to become a member of the Catholic Church.
Since that encounter, God has blessed my life immeasurably. First, he brought my friends, Mike and Debbie, into my life. And we have remained friends now for 43 years.
A few years later, God brought Gloria into my life through Mike and Debbie. Gloria had moved from Hawaii to further her education in piano performance; she got her second master’s and almost her doctorate before being called back to Hawaii because her father was ill.
Not long after her father died, Gloria was offered a position at Millikin University in Illinois and accepted. With her move back to the mainland we began to grow closer and in 1996 Gloria became my wife.
We moved home to Hawaii two years later and moved in with Gloria’s mother who felt she could no longer live on her own, and we began building our life in Hilo.
We joined the community at St. Joseph Parish where Gloria served as director of music liturgy and I as cantor until my ordination to the diaconate in 2018.
I am so grateful for this life and the people God has given me.
