The Messenger Eulogy

I Father O’reilly am privileged to have gathered amongst you all today, to give another perspective of a man who was not “just Ed”. He never gave himself great value but in my eyes he was a saint walking among us. I will never forget the moments and favours that Ed has shared with me. Ed, as many would say was a useless cab driver but in truth, I would say he was more of an inspiration and certainly it was an honour to have met this young gentleman.
I still remember the day when I first met Ed. It was just a usual lonely night, when this young man showed up at my doorstep. I must say my first impressions of Ed were certainly very unique. Firstly the state of his jacket and not to mention the fact that he put four sugars in his coffee which made me slightly concerned. I never really got to ask Ed what he thought of me, I sort of knew he considered me a bit different to the rest especially being a priest and talking the way I do.
There was that something about Ed which made him very special, I don’t know whether it was his innocent face or just the way he spoke but it seemed as if he had a passion to make things right in life. Words cannot describe how appreciative I am to this young boy, he has provided me a new perspective on how to live life. Ed visited me on a couple of occasions sometimes with his two friends Audrey and Marv. It didn’t take him long to realise that there weren’t many people who would visit my church. Ed took this matter into his own hands and it seemed as if he was determined to find a way to fix my problem. It was only a couple of days after visiting me on Sunday when Ed came barging through the front door with an idea on how to get people into my church.
I must say I was shocked when I first heard the idea providing free beer in the church. I still remember the first thing I said to Ed was that I don’t have the money to cover the costs of such an activity. Ed ironically said to me “just have a little faith” and walked away. I wondered at this point as to why he is doing so much for me when I barely even knew him from a bar of soap. There was certainly something which was pushing Ed to do all this for me but I never tried to interfere with his reasons.
The next time I met Ed was on the day of the party at the church. I don’t know how many faces Ed has put a smile to, but one thing I can say for sure is that the happiness I achieved from that one day alone was something I doubt will ever come along in my life again. The number of people I saw in my church that day was never to be seen before, although the most important moment for me was when I reunited with the one man who I was longing to talk to. If I had the chance to change one thing with Ed, then that would be letting him know how grateful I am of all he has done for me.
Besides what Ed has done for me, I have also heard about what he has done for others. The one I have heard about the most is the ice cream he bought for a lonely mother. It is certainly great to see that there are still people out there who are willing to go out of their way to help others.
From the bottom of my heart I again would like to thank you for everything you have done for me Ed. Others may call you average, ordinary or even useless but to me you will always remain a saint. I still don’t know what your motivation was behind all that you have done for me Ed, but all I will say is that may there be more men like you in this world. May your soul rest in peace, god bless.