JOEL JULIEN
"My father, my hero, my best friend."
This is how Brian Manning yesterday described his father, former prime minister Patrick Manning, as he delivered the eulogy at the state funeral held at the Holy Trinity Cathedral.
"My father lived a life of love. From his youngest days he preached a life of love and service, a life that was not focused on the accumulation of wealth but one of meaning where the world was left a better place."
Manning said he wanted to be just like his father.
"Over the years many have asked me why I wear my watch with the face on the inside of my wrist. It is because that is the way my father wore his watch and growing up I wanted to be just like him," Manning stated.
"My father was wise. Before I left home for my undergraduate studies my father gave me two things, a small clock and a Bible. I still have both to this day. He said these were all I would need to be successful in school and in life," he said.
Manning said he told his father he would also need money.
His father responded he needed a job.
The packed congregation at the Holy Trinity church laughed.
Manning said because of his "American education" he grew up to be "the only capitalist in a home of misguided comrades."
"We both did agree though that money was not the most important reason to do anything but it was the necessary tool to be used in the achievement of many noble goals. It was a tool to be used and should never be allowed to use you," he said.
Manning said his father was a man of character.
"For all of my life on this earth I have never heard a 'curse word' pass my father's lips, a benchmark for which I have already fallen hopelessly short," he said.
"In his 30s my father gave up the consumption of alcohol and did not have a drop to drink since. He believed that hard work and discipline build good character. He always treated my mother with love and respect, that is the kind of man my father was," Manning said.
Manning said his father was criticised "both fairly and unfairly."
Manning said his father often recited a speech made by former United States president Theodore Roosevelt to remind him that "no great accomplishment came without criticism."
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat," Manning said as he recited Roosevelt's speech.
Because of his close bond with his father, Manning said his eyes were not filled with tears but with joy and gratitude.
"My mother has lost the love of her life, her rock, her supporter, her protector, and my brother and I have lost our hero and best friend," Manning said.
"My father is gone. He did not leave his family a huge inheritance or many material things but something far greater, far more precious, far more valuable. He left us a legacy that could only come from a life well lived, a life dedicated to the service of our fellow man, a life of love. I am honoured to call you my father. Thank you dad, I love you," Manning said. (See eulogy on Page A20)