Alex Bourque Rosary — This family. This family. Wow! It's difficult for me to describe this rosary because I still can't explain how honored I am to be connected at all to the Bourque family from Louisiana. Before you read this, would you please read the description that I wrote for Rosary #53 four years ago?

Assuming you've read that, you should know how special this family is to me. So here we are, four years later, and the Broussard Fire Department in Louisiana purchased a new ladder truck that they dedicated to the memory of Alex Bourque. They've created a memorial for him at the fire station and since Alex' faith was so strong, his wife wanted to contribute a rosary; so she asked me to make one just like Rosary #53.

So, I prayed on this for just a bit and I felt this desire to, instead of just making an exact copy of the previous rosary, I wanted to make one that is complementary but special for this occasion. So, I used all of the same beads, but I arranged the colors to honor Alex's helmet number, 237, and also ladder truck #22. I started with all red beads and I laid out the number of black beads within each decade to match those numbers. The 5th image in the above slideshow illustrates how I did this.

All of the beads are 8mm glass beads. The crucifix is red enamel and the matching pewter centerpiece features St. Florian, the patron saint of firefighters, with the inscription, "St. Florian Protect Us." I also hanged a Fire Dept charm from the centerpiece. The chain, eye pins, and jump rings are all silver-plated steel.

Note: The new firetruck was built by Pierce Mfg which is only 30 miles from my house here in Wisconsin.