The Wayside Chapel’s Reverend Graham Long has bronchiectasis, a condition that made him cough without notice and a laugh that sounded like a “portable cement mixer”. But despite that, James Valentine made it clear it should be Long that read his weekly note – not Valentine.
“He insisted, however, that it was to be my voice,” Long said at Valentine’s memorial. “He wanted each of his shows to have light and dark, light and shade.
“He wanted the mood to have movement, loud, soft, serious, sad, and hilarious. So, with his reassurance, I gave it a go, and I was hopeless.
“I did cough, and I did crackle, and James acknowledged that our start was less than glorious, but he just knew that there would be a place in the heart of Sydney people for these stories.
“James loved that I described my own role as a tower of weakness. We give our illusions glorious names: spirituality, religion, career, purpose, meaning, ambition, and other such pretensions, but true greatness of spirit, true love is revealed in those who simply delight in others.
“You, James, were always having fun and always including others in the fun, and when it was time to die, you even used that event for the good of us all.
“There is nothing higher or more wonderful that can be said of a person but that they were good, and you, James, were truly a good man.”