I am away from my the pulpit on vacation on this Father's Day. This afternoon my nephew, Steve Mancini will be married to his sweetheart, Lorena. God bless all the Dads today! We remember those with Jesus now whose memory is such a blessing. My Dad was that to me.
Here is the eulogy I shared at his funeral almost a year ago.
My Dad, Larry Mancini
For 56 years it has been my privilege to journey to heaven with my Dad. He is there now.
Let me preface these remarks by saying everyone of the family members here today could add volumes to these words. This is a personal account and each of us has their own. On that same note I have had to limit my words. I am just giving a very very small portion to the man we knew as "Honey, Dad, Poppa, Great Poppa, Uncle Larry or Larry or Mr. Mancini."
He was born on January 14, 1927 to Rev. Albert and Ruth Mancini, in Pueblo, Colorado. He would be their only child. His parents were home missionaries. Their denomination in which they served had a boarding school in Zarephath, New Jersey. While the parents would do evangelistic work, their children were cared for at the school and Headquarters. At the age of 10, he went to live on its campus. Many of the stories my brother Mark and I loved to hear came from his growing up years at Zaraphath. Those stories became legendary. We told them to our kids and now to their kids. Nine years ago, an idea my brother had given me before he went to be with the LORD became reality. I recorded my Dad telling these gems on the very place wherethey occurred. That has become a treasured DVD in our family! Those descriptive accounts by him showed us that to have fun you didn't need a lot of money, you didn't need to break God's laws, you just needed an imagination and to be a little daring.
At the age of 21 he lost his father. At Zarephath he met our mother but it wasn't until a few years later that they began to date. On June 5, 1954 at the Springfield Gardens Church of the Nazarene he married Gladys Biggs. I never heard him call her by her name. It was always, "Honey" or "Sweetheart".
Gladys and Larry fell in love and stayed in love their whole life together. My Dad loved my mother deeply. Romance Never left.
They were faithful to each other from the beginning until the end.
They lived in Springfield Gardens until 1959 when they bought their first house in Bellmore, Long Island. Speaking at a funeral of a father of another family from that neighborhood in December I commented on what a sacrifice and gift our parents gave us in moving to Bellmore. For my Dad and others it meant working 2 jobs, 6 long days a week for 13 years. He did this so my mom could stay home with her children. Because he loved his family he was glad to make this sacrifice. I never heard him complain about it. I am still amazed how he managed to fit in such wonderful quality time for us. Somehow he did. I remember my dad leaving It was a joy for me to work with him regularly in Brooklyn. It was hard work but with my Dad it was enjoyable. He had a wonderful work ethic.
Back then Sundays were virtually spent in church except for Sunday dinner and a nap in between services. I can recall Sunday after Sunday afternoon where he would get down on the floor with us and play or where he would throw a baseball around in the yard or we would go for a ride together. His LORD, Jesus Christ came first. His family knew his love deeply. He loved being with us and we knew it. His spare time was spent with doing things with us. Many times it was "just" our immediate family. I put that word just in quotes for that was all we wanted and needed with Dad leading our family. We have great memories of fun times.
I have come to believe that being separated from his parents at a 10 years old for long periods of time and the loss of his own father at such a young age, gave him a tender heart and went into making him an incredible Dad to his own children.
Mark was born on April 27, 1960 and Cheryl on June 12, 1964. Old black and white photos, along with home movies tell of the joy that came to him on the birth of his three children. If there was ever a man who was fit to bear the name, "Dad" it was him.
I went to my first Mets Game with my dad. He raced home from work to make it to Mark's Little League games. He was at every track and cross country meet of mine he could be at. He brought his 8mm Kodak movie camera with him. Today those have been placed on a DVD and watched by myself and our coach and team members each Spring at our annual reunions held at my home. We've made copies of them for team members.
He loved sports and loved to share that love with others. I remember the Thanksgiving Weekend a number of years ago when he, Mark, Barry and I went to Cooperstown to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He could get a crowd together for a Binghamton Mets Game. He was thrilled when they came to town. Ron Luciano, the major league umpire wrote years before the B Mets came, that he lived in Endicott, NY and that Endicott, NY was far away from professional baseball. My dad became the Binghamton Mets#1 fan. I could tell many stories about my dad and baseball alone. In my Little League Coaching I still use the glove he bought for me 40 years ago. Oh the whiffle ball games in our driveway in Bellmore!
His mother passed in 1968, when he was 41 years old. His in-laws had already considered him a son but because of the deep love between them my Nana said to my Mom, "Tell Larry I will be his mother now." And she was! Over the next 20 years their relationship deepened. When she died my dad said, "We are going to miss Nana's prayers for all of us." He is with her this morning. What a glad reunion!
For many years he served as a Sunday School teacher. A good number of his students, including me, are now pastors. He served on the church board. He loved Camp Meetings and Gospel Music. In fact in the beginning of August my nephews Stephen, Michal and I played the guitar with my mom and him singing on the porch of Willow Point Nursing Home. One of the songs we sang on that sultry summer evening was "Mansion Over the Hilltop". He is there now, a month after. We also sang "How Great Thou Art". The last verse:
When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
and call me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, How Great Thou art!
A word about his humility... He was Sunday School Superintendent. He felt it was time to step down. He did and the next week you would have found him team teaching the toddler class with my Mom.
He was a great uncle. His niece, Dolly, told about the time he took her to Coney Island and together they rode the Thunderbolt Roller Coaster 4 times! That was my dad. He had the heart of a kid. He loved to have fun and see others have fun too. One of his great nieces and great nephews are here today along with others that knew him as "Uncle Larry". He was known as "Uncle Larry" to many beyond his actual family and as Kirstin entitled the blog she made for him after his fall 5 years ago, he was indeed "Poppa To All".
His work was with the grocery business, working for Grand Union, owning a Wise Potato Chip Route in Brooklyn and then In 1973, my dad bought a Drakes Cake route and moved the family to Endicott. On their new property on Walker Road, he put his farming skills to work he had learned growing up in Zarephath. What a garden he had!!! It became legendary. He loved to work in it and share it with others.
When Tonya was born he became Poppa. His grandchildren Tonya, Theresa, Tina, Chad, Stephen, Michal, Geren, Kirstin, Marlee and Ambria were a great source of joy in many ways. He has filled up video tapes of Kirstin's shows and musicals and VBS programs and sports events along with many family activities. Chad and I were talking this morning of the treasure trove of the videos he left us not to mention all the 8mm movies. All 10 grandkids knew his love in different ways. Whether it was rides in the wagon attached to his tractor or holding them as they fell asleep or babysitting them, or taping special shows off the Disney Channel for them, he did it with a love that was special, kind and caring. He brought his granddaughters and great granddaughters their first doll.
His grandchildren came up with the idea of bringing him home for Thanksgiving last November. It was a day that we will always remember. We asked him later in the day if he wanted to return to the nursing home and each time he said,"No." Finally at the end of the day he said that he was ready whenever we were. That would be his last time to his home. My son-in-laws and I brought him back to Willow Point after a day we will always remember.
When he became Great Poppa 8 1/2 years ago he again loved the time spent with the great grandchildren and enjoyed hearing stories about their antics over the phone the past five years. His 6 great grandchildren loved him deeply, some coming to visit him just this summer. If there was ever a man who earned the name, "Poppa" it was my dad. When he became "Great Poppa" it was a name that was so appropriate. It honored the Poppa he really was. Emma, Lili, Tristan, Jackson, Timmy and Maddie's pictures were over his bed when he went to be with the LORD on Friday. His sweetheart, his children and grandchildren's pictures at the foot of his bed.
I learned how to be a father and a Poppa from him. The vacations he took us on were epic events. He literally showed us the east coast of the US, from New England to Florida. He did it in such a way as to make it interesting, enjoyable and fun. When Mark and Cheryl and I had our children we celebrated together on a Carolina Beach for a week with my dad and mom, a gift from them. The time and the timing if that trip was perfect. A little over a year later his son, Mark, would be diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. I watched him face that terribly unspeakably difficult time with strong faith, compassion and submission to the will of God.
I can recall many instances which give a window into them man I knew as Dad.
* One very hot and humid 4th of July afternoon, after we had done some yard work together, he pitched and umpired an entire game for my friends and I. While the other dads were doing something else my dad enjoyed time with his son and the whole neighborhood in the blazing heat. I can still see that game. They have since paved that sand lot and put in curbing and all but when I go by it I see a man in a white tee shirt with half the neighborhood, on that hot July day having fun and yelling, "Out!"
*When the Jesus Movement came to the east coast, my dad drove a carload of teens in his 69 Impala to New Milford, New Jersey on a Friday night to a coffeehouse. Kids were coming to the LORD in great numbers. My dad stood there with tears running down his face and later when people criticized the loud music and the long hair, it was my dad who said, "Who are we to criticize?! Souls are coming to Christ."
*He took me to Milrose Games in Madison Square Garden in 1971. While a bunch of the track team was there, my dad was the only parent in attendance. I never asked but I got the feeling that my teammates were a bit envious of me that night. He took a wholehearted interest in what we were enjoyed. I still have the program from that night 41 years ago with my Dad, my hero.
*I remember a Christmas years ago. Poppa and Nanny came down and to Long Island. They had so many gifts for us that they to ship them ahead. They would not have been able to fit them in the car. The man, who for a number of Chritmases, had only some nuts and fruit in his stocking was loading his kids and grandkids with gifts. He maintained a hot tub in their yard for his grand children, primarily. His yard contained forts, fire pits and a path he maintained to the creek and the pond.
He loved nature. He loved to point things out to us. Whether it was the White Mountains of New Hampshire or the blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Dad enjoyed what His Father in a heaven had created. I remember him showing me a praying mantis when I was young. He pointed how it's posture and how it folded its hands. You can imagine my awe when one appeared on the front door of our home just as we were leaving Thursday evening. I took a picture of it.
My Dad loved to laugh. His favorite movie was It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. I remember the first time we watched it on TV. He laughed so hard. When the advent of movies on video tapes came out he bought it and at holidays we would put it on and laugh together. He taught Geren and Chad to eat ice cream cones by biting the bottom. For years they ate them that way with ice cream creating , in the words of my sister, "an absolute mess." Poppa would be laughing as this would happen. I remember that laugh from when I was very young.
I never remember my dad missing a day of work because he was sick. I never remember him not being in church with us by his side. I can recall sitting next to him, listening to those deep bass notes if the hymns.
I never heard my father use foul language. I watched him read his Bible and pray before every meal. When my brother became ill, he was my greatest counselor. His wisdom helped me face reality and brought comfort to my soul.
As he lost one son, he comforted his other one.
I can recall horseshoe games, whiffle ball games and Carom and Skittle Bowl. I remember puzzles that were very difficult.
My mom and he had many young people look at heir home as their own. He took time to explain things to us. He loved our mother, his wife and sweetheart, deeply. He over his children, his grandchildren and his great grandchildren. Over all this his love for the LORD shone through.
His hands....
While we grieve we do not grieve like the rest of men who have no hope. We celebrate a life very well lived and a soul who has found rest in the place he loved to sing about. Heaven is getting richer for me as the years go by. The souls the LORD has been bringing there are the salt of the earth. I miss them. But We don't say good bye today. We say, "There is going to be a meeting in the air in the sweet sweet bye and bye. I m going to greet greet you there in that home beyond the sky! Such singing you will hear never heard by mortal ear I'll be glorious I do declare! And God's own Son will be the leading One in that meeting in the air!" I'll be there listening to that beautiful bass voice singing as I stand next to him.
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