It’s not fancy or shiny – at least not in daylight hours, but when the assembly of about 70 feet of conduit and 64 feet of LED rope lighting raised into place and connected to power, the result is magical, calling to mind John Henry Hopkins’ familiar words:
O Star of Wonder, Star of Night,
Star with Royal Beauty bright,
Westward leading,
Still proceeding,
Guide us to Thy perfect Light.
For more than 50 years, a 5-foot-tall and wide silver star outlined in lights was raised and illuminated atop Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center, heralding the arrival of the holiday season in Rome and Floyd County.
Throughout her childhood and into adulthood, that star symbolized the beginning of the holiday season for Joy Wyatt Jones, founder of community hospice care in the area and former director of Atrium Health Floyd Heyman Hospice. Joy, daughter of locally renown physicians Drs. C.J. and Barbara Wyatt, and her family lived atop a hill in South Rome, and she had a perfect view of the star from her second-floor bedroom window.
“My memory is with my dad, looking at that star while he told me a story about a little girl,” Jones said. “It was kind of our ritual at Christmastime. At night, before I went to bed, we would look out at the star.”
As she grew older, Jones said the star became the first thing she noticed at Christmas, a reminder of a happy childhood, and later, it served as the backdrop for the annual Heyman Hospice Love Light tree.
This year, a new, larger, brighter star is replacing the original galvanized metal icon Jones remembers.
When Neil Gordon and Chuck Youngblood, both teammates in the Atrium Health Floyd Plant Facilities department, prepared to raise the star last year, they realized a new process and new star was needed.
As it was designed, the original star was only visible in one direction and putting it in place required a hair-raising balancing act. Together, Gordon and Youngblood brainstormed a better star with a safer installation process. Working with mostly existing materials in the shop, Plant Facilities teammates crafted an 8-foot by 8-foot star from conduit, then outlined it on both sides with LED rope lighting. They replaced the old “lift it into place” method by engineering a drill-operated worm-drive trolley system that can raise and lower the star to its highest point.
Their creativity brought Atrium Health Floyd’s iconic star back to life. This is emblematic of the work that is done every day in Plant Facilities as our teammates labor behind the scenes to keep all the key operating systems of our hospitals maintained and going. When they get the chance to do something added like this, they always respond to the call.
No one had to tell Jones her beloved star would once again be visible in the night sky. She saw it glowing during its test run, and just as the old carol proclaims, it is a star of wonder and beauty bright, leading and guiding our community to a place where there is health, hope and healing – for all.
