Eulogy to Rev. Wayne E. Wattman

By Rick Wattman, Eldest Son, 26 March 2019
Delivered at Gladwin Heights United Church, Abbotsford, BC, Canada

I’m here to share remembrances, reflections, and impressions on behalf of my siblings about our dad, the Reverend Wayne E. Wattman. For particular historical details, we have provided a chronology of sorts in the bulletin, so I will focus on some of our shared memories.

Celebration of Life, 26 March 2019, Gladwin Heights UC, Abbotsford, BC

I am but one of his four children, and we each had different experiences in our time with him in our lives. We were each deeply impacted when he left our family, each in his or her own ways. These were difficult realities. Continue reading →

–For Dad

By Marian Wattman, 1981

On Sunday
no place to hide from
church-friendly people
smiles, shaking hands
Sundays
were hardest
for quiet girls.
On Sunday
during cookies and punch
our Pastor had four feet,
four shoes trimmed his robe
(two shiny-polished black;
two size-three red canvas).
Sundays dark
cool-black silk
draped over tousled blonde hair,
breathe deep
the smell of new Bibles and
inside-purple box for communion
On Sunday
this hidden girl
holds tight round Father’s knees
and dances to song of his voice above

The Reverend Wayne Erick Wattman, our beloved father, friend, and minister, born July 11, 1927, in Superior, Wisconsin, left this life January 26, 2019, in Abbotsford, B.C. He was affectionately known as “Puck” as a child and by some, in later years, as “Wattie.” He is and will always be greatly missed for his compassionate care, gift of conversation, and delightful humor. Continue reading →

By Rev. Wayne E. Wattman, ca 1999

2 Corinthians 5:17… “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold the new has come.”

I remember my very first Vacation Bible School well. The place was the elementary schoolhouse in the little wee spot in the road called Bennett, WI, there because it was geographically in the very centre of the area pastoral charge to accommodate all the kids and besides it had a ball diamond. It was on this ball diamond that I slid into 2nd base and tore up my left knee pretty badly, courtesy of a rusty nail and I still hav the scar to show for it. It was also the time I memorized more Bible verses than anybody else in my class, 72 of them to be exact and I got some medal or pin, long gone; and 71 of those verses are long-gone, too, except one, 2 Cr. 5:17, a verse that has been like the scar with me ever since and like “our song” that lovers cron this verse has become a part of me, guiding and shaping my life for the past 60 years, “my verse” and I share it with you today. Continue reading →