OLIVER SIMPSON R.I.P.

On 28th May 1948 a baby boy -the fourth of ten children -was born into the home of Gerry and Peggy Simpson in Tul-na-Ri, Carndonagh. He was taken two days later to this church by his godparents Edward Simpson and Anna Maria Simpson where he was given the names Jerimiah Oliver. He and I were the same age. Later he went on to the Tech and I to the Colgan Hall. He worked in a garage for less than a week –he joked how he fell into the pit! In 1959 his father drowned in a swimming tragedy at Tullagh Bay trying to rescue a young man in difficulty. So from an early age Oliver had to help run the family business. His mother depended on him as she had ten children to rear without a husband. Soon he developed a keen business sense firstly, opening a marquee at Tulna Ri for dances in the mid-sixties and then in 1970 opening the Lilac Ballroom . This was during the height of the showband era. We joked last night about how the bank strike at the time worked in his favour. Having been refused a loan he still went ahead and kept writing cheques. In due course all creditors were paid but it shows Oliver’s entrepreneurship and courage. This business pluck also became evident when he invited Joe Frazier in June 1971, three months after defeating Mohamed Ali. It was a big coup. He started from nothing and in due course built a successful business.

One night at a dance in the Lilac he laid eyes on a beautiful young girl called Monica Houghton from Malin. I knew her, as previously Monica had run the Post Office in Culdaff for my parents. Friendship developed into love and a proposal of marriage which took place on 15th September in Rome. God blessed them with three beautiful children Gerry, Dermot and Maria on whom he doted. He encouraged them to get an education and realize their dreams.

Oliver had a great business mind, together with the dances he developed the shop into a supermarket and opened a restaurant. He was very intelligent and great with numbers, as quick as any calculator . He had no time for hobbies as his day was so full but a thirst for current affairs meant he still found space every morning to read the newspapers and to listen to every news bulletin . He knew all that was happening both at home and abroad.

Of course his dance business was in direct competition with that of my uncle, Brendan Faulkner in Culdaff and we joked yesterday how they both would go around- like children -taking down each other’s posters at night and putting up their own!

On a family holiday to Spain last month to celebrate their 30th Wedding Anniversary he began to feel unwell. He had scans. The news was not good. He was finally referred to St. Luke’s Hospital . All his life Oliver hated fuss. Even though he knew his time was short he did not want to put anyone to any trouble. ‘I’m grand’ he would say, covering up his pain.

The book of Ecclesiastes just told us there is a time for every season, a time to be born, a time to die, a time to hold on to life firmly with both hands and a time to let go and to fall into the outstretched welcoming arms of our Heavenly Father. That time came for Oliver last Monday afternoon at a quarter past three in the company of his loving family.

And so someone we have loved has died, someone special to us, precious, irreplaceable.

And I know there are no words I can say to you, Monica his wife, Gerry Dermott and Maria his children , to Brigid, Francis, Mary, Ann, Edmund, Margaret, Lydia, Josephine and Paddy , his brothers and sisters, no words I can say at this moment to express what you are feeling, no words that can alleviate your sorrow or take away your pain.

So we come here today bringing before the Lord your grief, the shock, and the pain, the emptiness, the loneliness, and the uncertainties which overwhelms us at this time when someone we have known and loved is plucked from our midst.

We come bringing these feelings honestly before the Lord asking Him for strength in this time of darkness. ‘Dear Lord, hold on to us’ we pray ,- ‘even when we find it hard to hold on to you. Be very near, even when we feel you to be very far away.’ Support this family in the days ahead and grant them the comfort you have promised, until the time finally comes when they can look back on this time not just with pain or grief but with acceptance and peace.

Yes, we are here to express sorrow that the life of Oliver has ended and to give thanks for all the love he shared with not just his family but to so many because Oliver truly had ‘a heart of gold’. We ask God to forgive him his sins and to have mercy on his soul. We are here grieving that his life is over, but seek reassurance from our faith which offers hope that eternal life has for Oliver just begun and one day we will meet again where all tears are wiped away.

Oliver Simpson was a good man. The one word I heard repeated about Oliver over the past few days is the world ‘gentle’ whether a ‘gentle giant’ or ‘one of nature’s true gentlemen’. We just heard ‘Blessed are the gentle’ read by Fr Sean in the Beatitudes.

Maria his daughter said ‘he would do anything for you – nothing was ever a bother, no matter what. He was always giving for he had a soft heart’. Oliver was humble, self-effacing and did not like the limelight, a listener more than a talker. He was relaxed and easy going, a man of few words and you never met him without a smile- he always seemed happy and he made friends everywhere. The constant stream of people to offer their condolences at the wake shows how much he was admired and respected both near and far.

I was told of his simple acts of kindness whether saying ‘Sure I’ll run you home’ to young people needing a lift after a dance or discreetly helping out those who had fallen on hard times. Only God and those who received them know of these secret acts of quiet generosity. ‘Even a cup of water, given in my name will receive a reward’ said Jesus. Today as we ask God to have mercy on his soul we pray that this good man of a simple faith and simple lifestyle is receiving his reward for his life of kindness and self-giving. We pray that our Heavenly Father is saying to him today ‘Well done ,Oliver my good and faithful servant. Welcome home to that place where broken things are fixed, where wounds are healed – that place where your yearnings for beauty and love are satisfied in my embrace forever-Oliver, well done!