Tribute to Tony

Yesterday I learned that our friend Tony S. died of complications after surgery.

I first met Tony at a church retreat at Charbonnières in spring 1995 with St. Michael's Church of Paris. I got to know him better when we were in the same French-speaking small group 1997-98 and worked with the Alpha Course together. When my parents visited France for the first time in 1998, Tony drove all of us to the St. Michael's spring retreat at LaPuye, with stops at the Chartres Cathedral and the chateaus at Blois and Chambourcy.

Tony was of Lebanese descent, was never married, and worked in finances. He must have been good at reading financial info, as he made his living buying and selling different currency. He was generous to my wife and I.

Tony was more "liberal" in some of his theological ideas than me. However, he definitely loved God and sought to follow Him. Some of his ideas stimulated my thinking, even though he was sometimes more blunt than I would have preferred. When we were struggling with the choice between 2 churches in 2000, his comments made it obvious that we should choose Belleville, which is where we've been for 7+ years.

Tony had some major heart problems while we were in the U.S. 1998-2000. He probably should have died back then. He thus has been living on borrowed time for nearly 10 years.

I expect that he may be chatting with my mom now in glory. I look forward to seeing Tony again sometime.