by Dr. Larry Moses
No one asked me but…One Saturday morning this month I met up with a number of Rotarians and burnt some burgers and hot dogs to help raise money for the Walk for Life that took place last Friday in the valley. The Walk for Life is an annual fund raiser for cancer research. This event was called Rope for Life and was headed up by Rotarian Teresa Bowen. When I arrived at 9:30 a.m. David Cook was already cooking and he was assisted by the Golden Arches gang: Morris Christiansen, Dennis Anderson and Ken Robison. Bill Pickett was there as he always is when a charitable event is underway. The food profits were around $200 but the major funds raised came from the cowboys who were roping.
I was able to watch the activity from the cook stand and it was pretty exciting. We cheered on Max Maserang who used to be a Rotarian and Teresa Bowen who is a Rotarian. Max is a header and Teresa is a heeler but not on the same team. I think both finished out of the money because Max was up washing down his horse before the finals and Teresa announced them.
Max donated the facilities and a lot of time to get the cattle ready for the event. I was at Max’s the night before the roping and learned that the steers had to be oriented to the arena. I did not know they had to be released several times in the arena so they would run to the exit gate when released from the chute.
The cowboys were riding for prize money and the top team took home a saddle for each member. Tom Collins, another Rotarian, had the saddles made and donated them for the event. Tom would have roped but he had another event for kids going on at his place in North Las Vegas. My wife told me another great Tom Collins story. He bought the Reserve Goat at the Junior Livestock Show during the Fair. I am not sure what a Reserve Goat is but it had been raised by a little girl in the valley. When Tom finished bidding on the goat he saw the girl crying. He asked why she was crying and she said he was going to eat her goat. Tom assured her that he was merely going to put it in his pasture and the goat would have a good home. Now I am going to stop by and have Tom show me this expensive pasture goat. I, for the life of me, cannot understand what anyone would want with a goat. A number of people have assured me that goats are good to eat but that animal has nothing to fear from me. If it isn’t pork, beef or chicken, I am not interested.
The Saturday event was team roping where one cowboy catches the horns, the other the hind legs of the steer. In many cases they merely attempted to do so. I kind of got the feeling that this is similar to the bowling leagues in the Midwest. It is probably the cowboys answer to the slow pitch softball I used to play. This was a bunch of good guys getting together to have a good time and display some skill, or lack of skill, as the case may be. I got a little too close to the arena a couple of times and when a cowboy missed, he said some things I never heard Roy Rogers or Hop-a-long Cassidy say. They sounded a whole lot like weekend golfers and a few of them may have wished they had taken up golf; it would have been a whole lot cheaper. But the results were over $5000 raised for cancer research.
No one asked me but… We attend the Methodist Church in Mesquite, Nevada. It is a small church with a fairly regular group of people attending. We all seem to have staked out our own places to sit during the services. Hubert, the 93 year old patriarch of the church, sits in the isle seat second row. Our spot seems to be the fourth row next to Jim and Shirley and Shirley’s 94 year old mother Thelma. For a couple of years, this seemed to be the seating arrangement. I truly believe if we lived in Mesquite, Jean and I would have enjoyed a closer friendship with this family.
Then one Sunday Jim was not in church Shirley said he was not feeling well and the doctor said his cancer was back. We learned that Jim had suffered from cancer earlier in his life and had fought it and seemed to have beaten it.
Shirley began missing more and more Sundays to attend to Jim as the treatment began to take a toll. We continued to sit with Thelma, who is a story unto herself. She is the neatest 94 year old lady and the matriarch of the church. We kept in touch with Jim’s progress through Thelma, and Jean sent cards.
Sunday of the Fair Week our dear LDS friends (they are actually more like family) came down from Utah for the Fair and Rodeo. To match up our Sunday services, we decided we would go to Sunday school while they attended a Sacrament Meeting in Mesquite. After Sunday school as we left to pick up our friends, we picked up a church bulletin and weekly newsletter. The newsletter stated on the next Thursday the members of the Mesquite Methodist Church were invited to a Celebration of Life for Jim.
When we arrived at the church on Thursday afternoon, our pastor greeted us at the door and said Jim was not having a good day but he hoped to attend. The church began to fill and nearly 200 people were there. The gospel singers from the church were there to present a 30 minute collection of Jim’s favorite gospel songs. When Jim arrived he seemed to be energized by the gathering and while thin he was smiling throughout the event. The program opened with a solo entitled Serenaded by Angels:
Serenaded by angels, up to the throne
Serenaded by angels, finally at home
Surrounded by praises, to the King
Welcome to Paradise, the angels did sing.
For the next 30 minutes the gospel singers sang to Jim the message of salvation. A lot of smiles were seen and a few tears shed and while we don’t know how long Jim will be with us we do know what Jim’s future is.
When Jim is gone and no longer here, When his time comes to leave this earthly sphere. When he walks that golden road that makes up a celestial mile And when it’s time to meet Jesus, on His face, Jim will see a smile.
When Jim enters heaven, Jesus will take him in loving arms and say, “Welcome home my good and faithful servant.”
Thought for the week…Cancer can take away my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever. Jim Valano, college basketball coach.
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