Sunday 20 March 2011

Faithful Servant


Apparently Belmont (known to the rest of the world as Jim, but to his family as Belmont) reached his goal, to sing "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" to Mona on their wedding anniversary.  He died at home on Thursday, the 17th of March.  The above poster appears on the Facebook page of the Oklahoma County Sheriff's office.  In reading that and Belmont's obituary, and other stories on the internet, although I already knew much of it, I have the say the numbers still impress me:

3 children
4 great-great grandchildren
7 grandchildren
18 great grandchildren
30 years service as deputy sheriff
60 years service at the annual Oklahoma State Fair
74 years as music director for the Downtown Baptist Church
75 years marriage (plus 5 years waiting to marry Mona!)
94 years of age at his passing.

Faithful and perseverant must be amongst the best words to embody Belmont's life, but beyond that he was a really nice man.  I only really mourn his passing because I was looking forward to our next visit and because his absence must be such an incomparable loss to his family.  More than anything I have to admire him for a life so well lived.

2 comments:

James said...

I am sorry for your loss. He seems to have been a good man.The world needs all of those we can get.

Rick Stone said...

I'm on an e-mail alert program from the Oklahoma County Sheriff's department. (When they have an alert out for a suspect, etc.). I got this information on an e-mail the day he passed away. The Sheriff and his staff were very proud of this officer.