Part 3 – My Dad, Maynard O’Connor’s Autobiography

Part 3 of my Father, Maynard O’Connor’s story.

When we came to Adelaide to live I took over a small green grocery round from Bro Lionel Pudney who was moving to Melbourne. I kept this going for one year and it returned a net profit of one pound ten shillings per week. We were paying half of that (15/- ) in rent so that we were not able to maintain a very high standard of living during that time. We were also still paying interest on the overdraft. During those days we more than once found a parcel of groceries which had been kindly left on our front veranda by a very lovely brother who lived in the same street (Maud St Unley).

It was during the time that I had the green grocery round that I first met Bro Max Eakins. I think that may have been before he was baptised. He had a green grocery round in the Sandwell area which is between Pt Adelaide and Semaphore. He later bought into the HL Banana Agency. Bro George Rankine was also associated with HL which was originally started by a chinaman named Hing Long. Hence HL. It was during this year that something happened which will demonstrate how straitened our circumstances were. During the winter I contracted a very heavy cold which confined me to bed. I had come home and parked the buckboard in the street in front of the house. Feeling so ill I went straight to bed. Some days later a policeman called with a summons. I was to be charged with the offense of leaving a vehicle in the street without a light on it after midnight on such and such a date. In those days the street lights were switched off at midnight. When the case was heard I was fined one pound ten shillings or if in default three days in gaol. Because of our circumstances we could not pay the fine so I had to go to gaol. When the time came I was told to report to the police station after I had completed my round on the Friday. The police were very kind. When I reported I was told by the arresting policean to go up to the other end of the tram to be taken into headquarters. That way noone would know that I was under arrest. He said he would fix my fare. I was to get out at the stop near Police Headquarters and he would follow me. They had even worked it out so that I would only be in from Friday night until Saturday midday. The law did not allow them to release a prisoner on Sunday and the could not keep me in longer than three days. That way I was able to serve my sentence in less than 24 hours. I will never forget the kindness of the Police at that time.

They were very trying times as many of that generation could verify. At one time in order that we may keep going, Jean had to sell some jewellery she had inherited from her mother. There were many times in those days that I can remember singing the words of hymn 62 with tears in my eyes and it was sometimes very hard to sing and believe the words of the last two lines of hymn 57 because there were occasions when we did not know where our next meal was coming from. However, we somehow managed to exist. In the two years after I gave up the green grocery round I had 22 different jobs. I did not lose any of them for any other reason than that the employer had no more work for me to do. If an employer had a few days work to be done, he would hire a man and as soon as the job was finished he would be put off again. I rode my bike hundreds of miles around Adelaide looking for work. At one stage I got a job at J Lawton and Sons. They had a factory in North Terrace. When I worked for them they were building the bodies on the first lot of Electric Trolly buses which used to run from Port Adelaide to Burnside and return. It was in this job that I first came in contact with electric arc welding. I was not employed as a welder but I used to go into the welding section in my lunch hour and with the aid of the welder I learned the rudiments of arc welding. This job lasted six months. In 1936 I got employed at GMH as an arc welder on No 1 line in the body shop. This job lasted 3 years until World War 2 started and within 6 months I was obliged to leave that job because of my conscience. I got work at Perry Engineering Co of Mile End. After a week with them I was sent out to the Abattoir where they had a contract to build the steel work for a three storey freezer.

During the time I worked at GMH I became a very fast welder because the production line there was set at a given speed so that a certain number of motor bodies were produced each day. You just had to learn to do your work at such a pace. If you couldn’t keep up with the line then you very quickly lost your job. If you had to visit the toilet during the production time you had to go like mad so that you could get two bodies in front and when you came back you had to go like mad again to catch up because you would most likely be two bodies behind. With this background of training I entered the employ of Perry Engineering Co. In that first week when I had only been there two days I was approached by the Shop Steward of the Boilermakers Union and was told to slow down because according to Union rules I was going too fast. It is to be noted here in relation to that instruction that the country was at War but it did not matter as far as the Union was concerned.
The job at the Abttoir lasted three months. During that time all our four children had the Mumps. In the end I caught it too. Because in those days there was no such thing as sick leave there was no pay coming in while I was off with the Mumps. Consequently I went back to work too soon. The first day I was back the arc welding machine kept playing up. I was working on the top of the third storey and all day I was kept running up and down three ladders trying to make the welder function. Consequently I suffered a very bad relapse of the Mumps and was off for another two weeks without pay. When this job was finished and I had to go back into the works at Mile End the war was going badly for the Allies. France had long since fallen and Japan was over running South East Asia and the Australian troops were fighting in New Guinea and consequently more and more were turning to munition making.

A munition factory was being built at Salisbury, North of Adelaide and Perry Engineering were involved in doing the steel work for the buildings. On going back into the works I was put on this work. After some time my conscience began to worry me as to whether I should be doing this type of work. Eventually I felt I could not carry on doing it so I first approached my Leading Hand. He and I and the Dogman on the Overhead Crane used to have our lunch together. On the day I chose to speak to him the Dogman was away. I began asking him what he thought of a consciencious Objector? I received a great surprise and a great boost to my confidence from his reply. He said, ‘Well Mick, I reckon that if a man has got a conviction and is strong enough to stand up for it, then I think he is just as brave as the man who goes into the front line.’ That was from a man who said fighting in war was in his blood. He was an Englishman and had tried to enlist in the army but he had been pegged in his job. Following that I told him that I would have to leave because I was a consciencious objector. He said, ‘I thought you were.’ A little later the Foreman came along and wanted to know what it was all about. I told him and he took it very well and said he would see what could be done. I had told them I would give them a week’s notice although all you had to give legally was one hour’s notice. During the week I was called to the Managing Director’s office. He was Sir Frank Perry. He wanted to know what it was all about too. Upon my telling him he said, ‘But the work you are doing, making roof trusses for the buildings, is only putting a roof over men’s heads, that won’t hurt anyone.’ I replied, ‘They are making things which are to be used to kill other people and I do not want to have anything to do with it. That was the end of the interview and I was sent back to the workshop again.

On the last day of my week’s notice the factory Superintendant came to see me and he told me that they thought they could keep enough work in front of me which would not offend my conscience if I would stay on. They had found me a good workman, he said and the did not want to lose my services. I agreed on that assurance and stayed on. Within a couple of weeks however they were not able to keep their promise and I was put on to helping build pontoon bridges to be used by the army. After a few days I had to speak up again and I told my lead hand I wanted to finish up that night. A few minutes later my foreman came down and he called me for everything in very lurid terms saying among other things, ‘Our boys are being killed in New Guinea fighting for people like you.’ I was told I could finish up at once and I was out of Perry Engineering Company by 9.20 am. The only time I had ever been dismissed from a job at a minutes notice in my whole life.

With the country at war and workers being pegged in their jobs I realised it may not be easy to find another job when I was asked where I had been working and why I had left. However, I went straight in to the city and after enquiring around a few places I obtained work at Yellow Cab Taxi’s stoking Gas Producers which were then being used because petrol was not available for those sort of vehicles. I worked at this job for 3 weeks starting at midnight and finishing at 8 a.m. I was watching the ‘situations vacant’ column of the daily paper and after three weeks I obtained a job with J Ladd & Sons driving a two horse trolly selling cool dirinks to all the shops and hotels in Rundle and King William Streets. This job continued for 4 1/2 years until the end of World War 2. Although the loss in pay amounted to one pound six shillings per week compared to a welder’s wages we felt that Yahweh had watched over us in providing such a way out for us so that we were not unrewarded for the faith displayed during those times.

Up until this time we had been still paying interest on the overdraft at the bank. We had been able to reduce it very little in the intervening time because we now had four very small children. Very soon after I finished at Perry’s I met Bro James Mansfield who had guaranteed the overdraft. I told him of my experiences at Perry’s in relation to my consciencer and he said, ‘Maynard, I am so pleased and proud of you for your action under the circumstances, that I will pay off the overdraft for you and you can forget all about it.’ He truly was a wonderful brother indeed. It was about this time that Compulsory Military Service (Conscription) was introduced in Australia. I registered at the Unley Depot on Dec 22 1941. Upon receiving my call up notice to attend for Medical Examination and being passed as fit in that examination, I was then called upon to take the Oath of Allegiance. We had been instructed by the Ecclesia to refuse to take the oath and then to apply for registration as a conscientious objector. There was a large number of brethren at the call up on that day and as I was first in line I was the first to apply to be registered at Unley. When I told the swearing-in officer that I could not take the oath and why, he was quite taken aback and told me very gruffly that I could not apply to be registered as a Conscientious Objector unless I was in the Army, therefore I would have to take the oath first. I of course refused so he said in a very military fashion, ‘Stand over there and I will deal with you later.’ I went and stood ‘over there,’ wondering what was going to happen next. It was not long before I was joined ‘over there,’ by the late Bro Bill Mansfield who was next in line. By the time the afternoon registrations and medical examinations were over, there were about 25 or 30 of us lined up ‘over there.’ We were finally released and were told to get the necessary forms from the area officer and to make formal application to be registered as CO’s. This I did and in due course received a summons to appear in the Unley court for my application to be heard on the 8th September 1942. There were about 100 other brethren beside me who received a similar summons to appear at Unley at the same time. In due course we all received exemption from Military Service, whether Combatant or Non-combatant. At this stage I will relate some incidents which I remember happened at those hearings.

First of all I must mention the particular Magistrate we had to go before to hear our cases. He was Mr Stanley Herbert Skiipper. Just previous to hearing our cases he had lost two of his own sons in the fighting in New Guinea. However, to his eternal credit and to our benefit such a sad experience for him did not in any way bias his judgments. We could not have had any fairer treatment no matter who may have heard our applications. Something for which we thank our Heavenly Father most sincerely. Brethren appearing in other courts did not fare so well. One of the first to appear was the late Bro. Ern Highman. He was a Chemist and had been baptised after war had commenced. Before knowing the Truth he had tried to enlist in the Services but because of his occupation as a Chemist he had been pegged in that field. He spent over 1 1/2 hours in the witness box being questioned by the Army Prosecutor and the Magistrate. He was eventually given exemption. The Magistrate commenting that he was satisfied that in Bro Highman’s case it was a genuine conviction and conversion.

There was great anticipation amongst us when Bro HP Mansfield was called to appear. We all thought that the Truth would be powerfully put forth when he appeared. Quite a number of us had been exempted by this time and the Christadelphian case had been pretty well established and some had only been asked three or four questions as to their bonafiedes and then been given exemption. When HPM stood in the box we all expected a good testimony but he also was only asked a few questions and he too was exempted. We all felt a little let down as a result, however, there is no doubt that Yahweh was working on our behalf.

A Bro Harold Prosser was a landscape Gardener and when he came before the Magistrate,the Magistrate he turned to Bro Gordon Wauchope (Adelaide Ecclesia and recorder a that time) and said, ‘Mr Wauchope I have about 60 more Christadelphians to consider, don’t you think that this man could be in a more useful occupation in war time than landscape gardening?’ Of course Bro. Wauchope had to admit that he could. Harold was later directed into the railways and became an ‘Engine Fireman” (Steam trains in those days). I believe he remained in the same occupation after the war ended. Another Bro was a messenger at Parliament House when war started. He later went to work in the Salisbury Munition Factory (which I have already mentioned) as a safety officer. He had been given exemption by the Magistrate, but before he left the witness stand the Army Prosecutor stood up and said, ‘Just a moment, where are you employed?’ The brother told him where and continued by saying that he was employed as a safety officer. The Magistrate looked very angry and turned to Bro Wauchope and said, ‘There you are Mr Wauchope, they will compromise their conscience to fill their pockets. It is a good thing for him that I have given my decision, which I cannot reverse now.’ It was a very embarrassing time for all of us.

During the war, the government established the Civil Construction Corps, CCC for short. We gained exemption on condition that we undertook work of National Importance where ever we were directed. The CCC applied to anyone which meant that any person could be taken out of their normal employment and sent anywhere in the country. Also in the war years industry was allowed to function on what was known as the ‘Cost Plus System,’ Under this system, industry was allowed to recover costs plus 4%. Some firms found that the more labour they employed the more they could make so that many were employing labour they did not need. This system of course only applied to firms doing Government contracts. On one occasion under this system some brethren were called up and sent to a firm at Port Adelaide. I can’t remember all their names but two of them were Brethren Dean Horgan and Lucien Wigzell. Their job the whole time they were there was to sweep up outside the building. They would sweep the dirt up to one end of the premises, have a talk, and then sweep it back again to the other end. This went on for several days and there was nothing they could do about it. They were eventually sent back to their original employment.

Bro Jim Cridland was sent to the Mile End railway goods yard. After he had been there for some time a request was sent to the CCC for more labour with the rider that if they had any more Christadelphians to send them down. In the meantime I was allowed to continue in my employment as a cool drink salesman and it was not until nearly the end of the War that I received a call up notice from the CCC. I showed the notice to Mr Land and he said, ‘Leave it to me and I will fix that.’ I did not hear any more about it and continued to sell cool drinks until the end of the war in 1945. As I have said, I was selling cool drinks to all the shops and hotels in Rundle and King William Streets. One day I was coming out of the Red Lion Hotel and met Sister Rankin, wife of Bro George Rankin whom I have previously mentioned. She was so shocked to see a brother coming out of an hotel that she went to Bro Wauchope at Balfours and it fell to his lot to explain to her why and that it was part of my job.

During the war a lot of US Servicemen would come to Adelaide on leave. Their rate of pay was much higher than that of the Australians. To ring from a public phone in those days cost two pence. A penny was about the same size as a two shilling piece. The Americans did not seem to worry if they did not have any pennies. If they wanted to use the phone they would put two pence or two shilling pieces in the slot. In the Hotel Richmond in Rundle Street the Hotel management had installed a phone for the convenience of their customers. Each morning there was always a race by the barmen to see who could get to the phone first so that he could empty the box of the two shilling pieces and replace them with pennies. The silver coins they would put in their own pockets. There was also a lot of money made by unscrupulous tradespeople due to the ignorance of the Australian currency by the Yanks.

At the close of World War II due to the help of Bro George Brumby I got work in a small blacksmith’s shop at Glen Osmond. Bro George was a postman based at the Glen Osmond Post Office. The owner of the Blacksmith’s Shop was a man named Bert Russ. He used to do general work and also used to manufacture ship’s chandlery. That is, small anchors and various other gear which is used on small boats. I worked here for the next five years. There were a number of changes made in this business in that itme. During that time, Mr Russ took in a partner named Lionel Morris and the firm became Russ and Morris. A year or so later Mr Russ who was a very hot tempered man decided to get out and the hardware firm of Haselgroves bought his share. The prime mover in this deal was Mr Harvie Haselgrove and so the firm became Harvie Morris Pty Ltd. and still trades under that name although Morris has long since dropped out of it. During my time with this firm I began shoeing horses in my spare time. I was allowed to use the facilities of Harvie Morris Ltd. I used to shoe all of Opie Brothers Bakery horses as well as milk cart and council horses and a lot of children’s ponies and hacks round the Glen Osmond and Beaumont area. Eventually I built up my clientele until I could no longer handle the work in my spare time. I was able to rent a small shed on Glen Osmond Road Frewville, No 217. After resigning from Harvie Morris Ltd I spent a week or so fixing up the shed and putting a brick floor in it and in May 1951 I opened up for business full time as a general blacksmith and welder.

Business Gradually built up and in 1952 my eldest son Maynard who had been training to be a school teacher, decided to come in with me and about a year later the business of Maynard O’Connor and Son was established. In 1953 we were albe to purchase premises at 118 Glen Osmond Road Parkside where we built a new shop of brick, 50′ x 30′. When the building was ready for occupation we had a grand opening which was in the form of a variety evening to which all the Adelaide Ecclesia was invited. This was followed by a barbecue supper. To add to the novelty of an evening like that in a blacksmith’s shop we had various notices printed. One was put on the vice which read, ‘Our only vice,’ another on the forge fuel bin, ‘Get your coke here.’ Another we put up on the wall. This was covered over and Bro Keith Provis was asked to unveil it. It read ‘No bad language please.’ That notice stayed on the wall all the time we were in business in those premises. Over the years it was often commented upon by our customers. In most instances with favour. We also had a notice placed on the forge which read ‘O’Connor’s forgery, we will forge anything.’ Some years later we sold out these premises to Fire Fighting Equipment Pty Ltd who were next door. We had extended the buildings twice after the original building was put up. Fire Fighting Equipment had a factory at Bowden. We made a deal with them, exchanging the two factories and they paid us a cash difference.

After extending the Bowden factory to suit our needs we moved down there to 45 Gibson Street Bowden. We stayed in business together at Bowden until 1969 when we sold out a section of the business to the firm of A Noble and Son Pty Ltd. I went with the section which was sold and worked for A Noble and Son for six years until I retired at the age of 66. Maynard and I had been associated with Nobles on a business footing for almost 20 years. During that time we had declared our consciencious objection several times to doing some of the work they offered us and with the sale of a section of our business to them and with my going to work for them now, the question of my own consciencious objection to certain work was thoroughly discussed. Mr Grant Noble the Managing Director said that while they respected my stand, Noble’s interests would have to come first. I assured him that if a situation arose in which I had to refuse to do certain work and they could not find alternative work to keep me gainfully employed then I would have to resign. They were quite satisfied with this arrangement. During the six years that I worked for them there were two occasions on which I had to refuse certain work. On both occasions they had alternative work for me to do and so I stayed with them until I retired. They valued my services to the extent that they asked me to stay on an extra year beyond my 65th birthday. Just as a matter of interest, the folder I use to hold my notes for the Wedding Services is the outer cover of a writing case that Noble’s presented me with on my 65th birthday. Also the car I still drive was a company car I was supplied with while working for them which they sold to me very cheaply when I finished with them. Even now after seven years I still get a staff discount on anything I buy from them.

Once again I must go back several years to 1945 when I started work at the blacksmith shop at Glen Osmond. After working there for two years I had my first trip to Sydney. On that occasion I stayed at the home of Brother Bruce Philp who lived with his mother and brother at MacDonald Street Lakemba. This was in the early days of the Elpis Israel Classes. Bruce was very active in this sphere of work. He had paid a visit some time earlier to Adelaide. With the trip in mind I had written to him to enquire what would be he best time of year to visit Sydney. In due course I received a letter from him dated Feb 18 1950. This is what he wrote in reply to my enquiry. ‘I furrow my brow and think of the howling gales of July and the blistering heat of December, the showers that come in April and the tornados of Octvember ( a special month only occuring in Sydney – it originated following a special decision of the Central Standing Committee at the Adelaide Conference in 1948) I find that September is a beautiful month. It is spring time in Sydney and spring time in Sydney is not as nice as in Adelaide but still very nice for our colonial visitors from SA.’ To top it all off, the enevelope was addressed to ‘Mr Maynard O’Connor, Honorary Secretary, Royal Scottish Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Broken-down Bag-Pipe Players, 12 Kenilworth Road Parkside SA’. I still have that letter and envelope.

Another of my prized possessions is a letter dated April 30 1933 from Brother James Mansfield (father of HPM). It was written on note paper of the SS Strathaird. This letter was written on board as they steamed across the Great Australian Bight enroute to England and Europe. In his letter Bro Mansfield said that he had written to Bro Mark Harris (Adelaide Librarian) asking him to forward to Jean and I at Pinnaroo two books. Those books were Elpis Israel and Nazareth Revisited. We still have them.

During the winter of 1950 my eldest son Maynard and i took a trip to Sydney by road. Our transport was a 1926 model Chev 4 which I had bought from Bro Gordon Hollamby of Glenlock. We had converted it into a buckboard and had covered in the tray top to make sleeping space. It was not quite long enough for us to sleep full length so we arranged it so that we could let down the tailboard and had a flap made to cover it so that we slept with out feet outside but covered with the special flap. The tail board was also our meal table. Before we left it was necessary that we have the engine rebored. Bro Archie Provis was a motor mechanic and was also an instructor in Motor Mechanics at the School of Mines which was the trade school in those times. By giving the car to him it could be done as practice by the students. All the owner had to pay for was for the parts. The only problem was that it took a long time to get the job done that way. However, we gave it to him do do it that way. All they had the time to do before we were to leave was just the rebore and to fit new rings and pistons. The bearings were left as they were. Consequently the engine still had the knocks in it that had been there before. Because of this we were restricted to a maximum speed of 28 mph and as we covered something over 2,000 miles on the trip there were times when we were a little bored. To help break the monotony I set Maynard the task of working out the diameter of the wheels and then how far we traveled with each turn of the wheels and then how many times the wheels would turn to cover each mile. There were other things we tried too but I cannot remember what they were now.

We went to Sydney via Bordertown, Bendigo, Shepparton, Albury and the Hume Highway. We came home via the Coast Road to Melbourne and then on the Great Ocean Road to Mt Gambier and tto the Dukes Highway to Adelaide. Many miles of the trip in those days were over pretty rough gravel roads. The road all the way from Geelong to Mt Gambier was gravel. When the rebore was done so much metal was bored out that in one cylinder the wall was left very thin. Consequently when we had just passed through Pt Cambell on the South Coast of Victoria the compression, when we were running down hill, finally caused the cylinder to give way and of course all the water from the water jacket went into the engine and the sump and it appeared that we were in real trouble. We were able to get the local garage in Port Campbell and after telling our sad story the proprietor said he knew where there was an engine which had been taken out of a farmer’s car only a few days before. He took us out to a farm some seven miles away and we were able to buy it complete for 30 pound. It cost us another eleven pound to have it installed and we were on our way again after a delay of two days.

We left Port Campbell at 6 pm and got to Mt Gambier at midnight just in time to get a pie each from the pie cart. We finally arrived at my sister’s place at Naracoorte at 1.30 am. When we left Port Campbell it was raining and blowing a gale. Driving along the cliffs above the Southern Ocean the wind was so strong and the road so slippery that sometimes as we drove along a gust of wind would catch us and the car would just slide sideways right across to the other side of the road. In those days the windscreen wipers were hand operated. In order that I could see where we were heading Maynard had to operate the wiper for me because all of my attention was taken up with driving. When we got home we had the damaged cylinder in the engine resleeved which cost six pound and we were able to sell the engine for what we had paid for the other one, 30 pound. The whole trip was quite an experience and one I will never forget.

There are no doubt many things I could continue to add to what I have already written but I think I have gone far enough so I will endeavour to draw these reminiscences to a close. As I have been looking back and recording these things from my life I feel that I have had a full and rewarding life. I have had my ups and downs. There have been times when I have wondered where I was heading and how it would all work out. I feel that I have been very fortunate in living in the times from 1914 to 1982. I cannot remember anything that happened in my life before 1914 although I was born in 1909. I have seen vast changes since then, some for the better but sadly many of them for the worse. In those early days when the pace of life was so much slower, I believe we were much happier even though we were very poor. In those days we are subject to so many pressures brought upon us by this materialistic and Godless generation. These conditions cause us to long for the coming of God’s Son and the establishment of God’s Kingdom so that all the frustrations and the pressures will be superseded by the wonderful tranquility promised al lthose who love and serve God in this present life. Therefore I thank God for his mercy in calling me to a knowledge of His wonderful Truth. Even without the anticipation of a place in that Kingdom I have found life in the Truth both full and rewarding. I do also give Him thanks for the association of those of like precious faith which has been spread over so many years. Truly, as I have related there have been times when my faith has not been sstrong enough to see beyond the trials to which I have been subject. But as I have written and remembered these experiences I have become conscious of the Hand of Yahweh in my life. Even as there were times when I doubted the truth of the words of hymn 57 in rercording these things I have been brought to realise the truth of the Apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 10:13, where he says ‘God will not suffer us to be tried above that we are able to bear but with the trieal will provide a way of escape.’ That has been the experience in my life many times. The way a job was provided for me so soon after I was dismissed from Perry’s being one such instance. Not only was it just a job, but it was one that carried us safely right through the war years without any further molestation. We therefore call to mind the words of the Psalmist in Psa 37:25, ‘I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread.

Yet there were times when we were so low that there were doubts in our mind concerning the truth of those words but as I look back now I realise that they were true. I can see now that a strong belief and trust in God was lacking in me leading to the doubts that assailed my mind at that time. As I have read through the forgoing pages I have been able to see over and over again how Yahweh has delivered us out of our trials. Continually His Grace has been extended to us. Because of His Grace I have been able to live my three score years and ten, largely in very good health a blessing for which I do thank him. I have been blessed with 4 children and nineteen grand children and two days ago I was informed by one of my grandchildren that God willing I will see my first great grand child in October 1982. And so now as I conclude this history of my life, I call to the reader’s mind that my wife and I were baptised on her 18th birthday which was the 1st of November 1932. That being so, if it be according to the will of Yahweh we will have been 50 years in His Truth on 1st November this year, 1982. Truly he has been good to us and no words of mine can express my thanks to Him for those years. Signed Maynard O’Connor 11.3.1982.
So that is the end of my dear Dad’s story. How much I love him now, in my wiser years as I understand his trials and tribulations and his courage in overcoming them. I so look forward to seeing you again in God’s kingdom on earth dear Dad.