“Joe Boland” By Doug Fincher

June 17, 2019 - I was Pastor of The First Baptist Church of Shelbyville, Texas when Mother called me from Center saying that she had invited Joe and Mimi Boland to attend our church. “They live at the Old Center community a few miles from Joaquin,” she said. “You’ll like them the first time you see them.” The next Sunday morning, Joe came smiling his way into our sanctuary. “I’m Joe Boland,” he said as he sat down. Two weeks later, he and his wife Mimi joined our church and even though they lived thirty miles away, they seldom missed a service. Joe knew how to encourage a preacher like no other. He made me smile, laugh and feel good. At times hee would stand during the morning announcements and encourage the congestion with his testimony..

The Bolands often baked home-made bread and gave us a bread baking machine like theirs. When we learned Joe needed a 22 rifle, we gave him one for Christmas. Mimi invited us often to wonderful early morning breakfasts and they gave us our 20 ft. banana bush when it was only two feet tall. Pam and I built the Bolands a surprise mail box and installed it while they were on vacation.

Joe quit watching Professional football because of the players low morality, but remained a faithful fan of Coach Tom Landry…. and gave me a book on Landry’s life. He often used a word I’d never heard. The word was “Copasetic.” It means completely satisfactory or in good order. If it’s copasetic, it’s fine, OK, and cool. And after our conversations he’d say, “Copasetic”… meaning that things were fine between us. He advised me when I got in a confrontation: “Don’t .let’em see you sweat.” Joe developed a blood disease that required transfusions and was finally admitted to Shumpert’s Hospital in Shreveport. It was there that Pam and I saw him for the last time. He returned home and soon passed away.

While I tearfully stood at the graveside at the Old Center cemetery, I thought of all the good he had accomplished in the name of the Lord…. and how few people were there to hear it. But then I recalled what Joe said when he insisted on a graveside service. “A big funeral isn’t necessary for people when they cross The Jordan,” he said. “Everyone preaches their own funeral by how they lived while they were alive.”

I have met a lot of people during my 86 years and have made many friends. Some of them were special ones…the kind you never forget. 

… and I’ll never forget Joe Boland.