I miss you so much.
|
Beloved Brother, Husband, Father, Grandfather, and Friend.
I miss you so much. |
He was born in Copeland, Kansas on January 7, 1929. He was born to Bennie and Anna Mae Weeks. He was preceded into life by his older sister Lois. He was born in time for the depression and the dust bowl, and he grew up as a farm kid. He started school in a little one-room schoolhouse. He learned to drive a tractor at an early age, and in fact they used to tie him to the tractor seat with ropes so that he wouldn't fall off when he rode it and drove it. He kept running away from home with his dog but he didn’t run far, he always just ran over the hill to his grandma’s house. Everybody knew where he was when he ran away.
When his father died at age 16 the family moved to Dodge City, where he graduated from high school in 1946. Then he enrolled and later graduated from Dodge City Junior College. He met his wife-to-be Marty when she was still in high school, and her father wasn’t really excited about this high school girl dating this college man. But Wayne won them both over and after three years of dating he and Marty were married in the First Presbyterian Church of Dodge City.
They moved to Wichita in 1951 where Wayne enrolled in what was then Wichita University and took a degree in accounting. And soon after that followed three children: Bob, Susan, and Ann, who are now married to their spouses Lynn, Linn, and Paul.
Wayne was a businessman who contributed to the well-being of our community in Wichita. He was as decent and ethical as they came. He was a straight-shooter. A lot of people said he had a gruff exterior at first that maybe put you off a little bit, but that gruff exterior belied the tender heart of a compassionate and caring individual.
He worked in real estate most of his life. Dick Gorham, our beloved associate pastor who can’t be here because of his own surgery from cancer, Dick in a conversation I had with him talked about Wayne as a real estate person. He remembered the time several years ago that many of you will when the real estate market went flat, in fact it didn’t go flat as Dick said, it went in the hole. And a lot of people were bailing out, looking for another place to work. One of the great things that Dick remembers about Wayne was his optimism. He said to Dick at the time "Dick, I’m hanging in there, because it’s going to get better." And it did.
Dick remembers Wayne as someone who loved to be teased, and who loved to tease. Dick says a great friend who was always there with words of encouragement, and as many of you know, with little acts of kindness.
He was more than a businessperson, though, he was also a community leader. He founded the Bonnie Brae Homeowners Association where he and Marty lived. He was a leader in the United Way, working on the allocations committee. He was an avid participant in the Wichita Historical Society, which the family sometimes calls the Wichita Hysterical Society. He became quite a fan of genealogy and had traced his own family back to the 1600’s. He was involved in Indian Guides through the YMCA. He was a baseball manager in the little league. He was a businessperson of great integrity. He was a community leader who contributed to our well-being.
But if you knew Wayne, you knew that that which ran deepest to his heart was not his life in business nor his life in the community but his life at home. His life as a husband, his life as a father, his life as a grandfather. The children say of he and Marty, they were marriage partners. Married together for 47 years. They loved each other, and their marriage of 47 years was the stability and the foundation of their lives. The greatest gift that parents can give to children is a solid marriage that stands the test of time. The kids said that Wayne and Marty were always holding hands, like the young lovers that they became back in Dodge City nearly 50 years ago. "Our Dad loved us," Bob, Susan, and Ann said. And he wasn’t afraid to tell you, and he wasn’t afraid to show you that he loved us. The words that they used to describe their father—available, dependable, supportive, great sense of humor—and like all families have wonderful stories. The memories of Wayne will always be of the riding lawnmower that he could never get to work. The memories of Wayne will always be, as the family looks out the window into the backyard at the power pole with the transformer, of the time when at the children’s insistence he had to climb the power pole and rescue the cat who was resting comfortable in the wires at the base of the transformer. They looked out and laughed as they remembered that story as he courageously climbed up that.
When they think of Wayne they’re always going to think of his watching the television, watching WWF wrestling. One of his favorite things to do was to teach his little grandson Michael, age 4, to do an imitation of Hulk Hogan, a side of Wayne perhaps some of us didn’t know before.
But if you wanted to make Wayne’s eyes light up in his later years, Dick Gorham said, bring up his grandkids. Get him to talk about Ben, who’s ten years old. Get him to talk about Michael, who’s four years old. Get him to talk about Peter, get him to talk about Alexander Edward, get him to talk about Julian, because, you see, Wayne loved them. During the time when Ben was the first grandson, he and Marty would often travel to Fort Worth on many weekends when Linn and Susan lived there, simply to be with that first-born grandchild. Wayne loved to do woodworking—he’s given pieces of finished furniture to all of the children—but one of the great gifts he gave was when one of them was involved as a Cub Scout in the pine box derby. He didn’t just make a little pine box derby car, he made a pine box school bus that raced in the pine box derby.
In May of 1996 Wayne was diagnosed with cancer. He was ready to fight. He went to M.D. Anderson. If the treatment called for chemotherapy, fine. He was ready to step up to whatever the treatment was going to be. In fact, two times he found himself in the hospital because of the side effects from the chemotherapy treatment. Dick Gorham, who loved Wayne deeply and visited with him so often, said never once did I hear Wayne complain. He said when I go in and I talked to him and I’d ask him "Wayne, how are you feeling and how are you doing?" He said Wayne would give me a brief word about himself and then he’d quickly turn the question and he’d say "how’s my friend Bob Shaefer doing?" He’d ask about other people he cared deeply about and tears would come to his eyes as Dick would tell him how they’re doing. Because, you see, his friends mattered so much to him. And then just several weeks ago, when Dick received his own diagnosis of cancer, he said Wayne tenderly said to me "Dick, welcome to the fraternity. Now we really do have a lot in common." And Dick said I’ll never forget those words. I’ll never forget them.
But Wayne had a special bond with one of his grandchildren. With little Nicolas. When Wayne was on oxygen and he would go to their home, as he would get up to leave, Nicolas would want to roll the oxygen tank around for his Grandpa. Just a few weeks ago Nicolas died on an operating table from causes that cannot be determined. And the family said that little Nicolas’ death broke Wayne’s heart.
Wayne was a businessman, a good one. He was a community leader, and he contributed to the well-being of our community. He was a faithful husband for 47 years. He was a loving father, and he was a devoted grandfather. But if you just take those five areas those don’t explain who Wayne Weeks was alone. Because, you see, at the deepest core of his life, Wayne Weeks was a man of faith. He was a churchman in the best sense of the word. Both at First Presbyterian Church and here in our own Eastminster Presbyterian Church Wayne served faithfully as a deacon. He served faithfully as an elder. He could be found ushering regularly on Sunday Morning. He loved God’s Son Jesus Christ and he loved His Word. For many years he participated with some of you at the Bible study downtown at First Baptist Church. And nearly every Thursday morning with lots of the men in this church family going back to Brown’s Grill. And then later when that Thursday morning group of men moved their Bible study here, Wayne was here. But yesterday as we talked together and shared memories and tears and laughter with the family, Wayne’s daughter-in-law Lynn said "You know, I grew up in a different tradition. And I had a lot of questions about my faith. And Wayne really knew his Bible well. And I loved to talk to him. When I asked him about what was most important with his faith, he would tell me this: He would say it is my personal relationship with Jesus Christ."
This morning, dear friends, we celebrate. We speak good words about a man who lived his life well. But we witness to the resurrection hope we have this morning not because he was an ethical businessman, not simply because he was a wonderful person, which he was, not simply because he lived a life of good works, which he did, and not even because he was a churchman. We celebrate his life this morning because Wayne Weeks had placed his faith, and his trust, and his hope in Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection and the life. Two verses that had come to mean so much to Wayne come from the book of Romans: "Know in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything in all of Creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God and Jesus Christ."
Dear friends, this morning because of the grace and the love of God and Jesus Christ, and because Wayne had responded in faith and in trust in that grace and love, we can say with certainty that nothing, not even death itself, can separate him from the love of God and Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God for this life that has been lived well. Thanks be to God for His grace and the triumph of Jesus Christ over death.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!
Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
When thro’ the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze.
And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.
When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art.
The complete guide to Weeks on the Web.
Created by Robert W. Weeks