Tales From the Ashes

Picture it: a little white-haired church lady trying to burn dried-out palms in an aluminum pan on the top rack of her barbecue grill to make ashes for Ash Wednesday. It’s windy. Ashes go flying everywhere.

“It was such a disaster I can’t even begin to tell you,” says Janet Sweeting, a member of Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral in downtown Kansas City. “My husband said, ‘This can’t be right.’ ”