It's been 60 years now for Jozsefne Szedlak, or "Aunty Ilonka," as they call her in Tereny, Hungary, where she lives north of Budapest.
60 years keeping up the family tradition, twice a day, ringing the bells in the tower of her church twice a day. She is one of the few remaining bellringers in Hungary, but, "As long as my hands and feet can handle it, there won't be an automatic system," says the grandmom of three at 80 years of age.
And this isn't just ding-a-linging a little handbell, no sir. One of the bells weighs 1,000 pounds.
She does not wish to turn her bellringing chores over to a machine, "because people say, and it's true, that bells die when they are automated, so a bell working by the press of a button does not chime the same. The bell summons the living, mourns the dead and breaks the storms."
Just as so many jobs have been mechanized and replaced by motors and machines, so have bellringers. Ferenc Bajko is a campanologist who studies the history of church bells, and he reports that, "In Hungary, usually Protestant churches have them, where the bells are only used on Sundays. It is really unique to have someone manually ring the bells several times every day."
The mayor of Tereny, Andrasne Brozso, says Aunty Ilonka is a great blessing, and that news crews and curious tourists are regular sights around town. Hungarian President Katalin Novak came to see her last June.
Most days, the chore is not too demanding physically. She only needs one hand to ring that bell at noon or in the evening. But for important Christian holidays such as Easter, she needs to get all three bells ringing in that old church. That's when she sits on a stool and uses both hands and her right foot.
She's a sunny soul, because get this: she says with that sort of workout, she doesn't need to hit the gym.
She is proud to carry on a tradition begun by her great-great-great grandfather.
I need to know more about my great-great-great grandfather before I promise to carry on his traditions.
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