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I first met Maurice while I was the Area Minister for San Diego. Bay View Baptist Church had just lost their Pastor and Maurice as head of the Deacons had contacted me for help in finding a new pastor. I conducted a consultation even with the church and sat with Maurice and some others as the Pastoral Search Committee. This was around the year 2000. We kept in touch and talked on the phone every once in a while. In 2006 after I had retired as Area Minister, Maurice called and told me that they again needed a new pastor. To make a long story short, I came and became the part-time pastor. I am thankful to him because he was my biggest booster and became one of my very best friends.
Even though I posted the picture of Maurice with his eye patch, this was not always how he looked. He was always a very proper gentleman. On Sunday morning he always came dressed properly. I confess that I was and am still not fully satisfactory enough in dress to please him. I have seen picture of him when he was young -- a dashing good looking man who married an equally good looking young lady. He was a merchant mariner just after WWII, a soldier in the Korean War, an Engineer and an airplane pilot. He actually developed a revolutionary aircraft engine for airplane racing. I forgot, he was also drove hot rods and automobile race car driver. When he was a young man he was also very involved with Youth for Christ in Los Angeles.
Well, by the time I came to Bay View he was no longer dashing and young, but he was prim and proper. He had a burning desire to learn more about the Bible. He asked me to teach him weekly everything I knew about the scriptures. We started an extended study that persisted until this week. As we studied, we began to know each other and began to swap sea stories (a sea story to an old sailor is really any old story about when we were young.) We became very good friends.
Maurice had been diagnosed with cancer in the 90s but he seemed to recover (yes, he believed in healing.) He seemed healthy when we began to meet in my office. I could hear him entering the parking lot (he never lost his love for automobile racing.) After a year or so, his cancer returned. At first, there was not much change. Then he had trouble focusing his eyes and an eye patch was required.-- see the picture. We continued to meet in my office. Then the fateful day came when the family took his car keys. I guess all of us will face that day. So we began to meet at his home. About a year ago, his cancer spread and he had trouble maintaining his balance and was prone to falling asleep while standing. He began to wear a helmet. Then he needed a walker. Yet, he was at worship every Sunday. Nothing could keep him away. Finally, he was in a wheel chair -- but he was still at worship.
As the cancer progressed, our talks got deeper. He didn't want to abandon his wife. He knew that he would be alright, but she needed him. He was also fearful of her leaving him. They were still love birds. We did a lot of praying together. Then, last Sunday he was not in church. But I was still planning on meeting him on Wednesday. Tuesday evening his daughter Dorothy called and said that he might not make it through the night. Sure enough, at 12:45 early Wed. morning, he left to be with the Lord. That is why he missed our meeting.
I will miss Maurice. I know that he is a lot better off now. He really suffered at the end. Yet he never lost the faith -- and he never lost his sense of humor. Now there is a hole in my schedule for Wednesday. Good bye Maurice and God bless you. Thank you for your friendship.
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