Page 147 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
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GFA – A Different Drumbeat 147
name to reflect their wider ministry, to Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF). This meant
that he often crossed paths with one of his nephews and one of his nieces.
His nephew, Percy Moore and his wife Amy were, from 1952, developing the OMF work in
Malaya. Whenever they were in Singapore during those years they always went to see him.
Percy had a great admiration for his uncle. In Amy’s account she adds:
It was here that we first met ‘Sophie’ who became GFA’s close friend and who
helped to give him the warmth and affection which he so much missed.
Sadly, on 15th February 1954 his family in Canada received the following telegram:
MY SOPHIE DIED PARIS FIFTH INSTANT STOP WRITING DAD
The next day he wrote the following clarification,
“My telegram last night will have advised you of the home call of my dearest Sophie
on the 5 February in the hospital in Paris. Her end was painless thank God and her
kind friends saw to her burial in a plot of ground at Bayneux - suburb of Paris
I Moved 1 Feb. from the Station Hotel to the Cathay into a beautiful apartment with a
view right over the heart of Singapore, away out to sea. I went, just after the move, to
a quiet family party and the women renovating the dining room had left it in such a
state I had to enter from the garden, where I stepped into an uncovered gutter—
breaking four bones in my left ankle. I spent the night in pain. The doctor came,
called ambulance and sent me to hospital where I underwent an emergency
operation. When I got to my bed in the hospital, first thing I was conscious of was a
telegram from Madame Reynaud (a great friend of ours in Paris — herself the widow
of a former French consul General who died at his post n Hongkong) stating that
Sophie’s condition had become very much aggravated’. Two days later I got a letter
from Madame Reynaud stating that Sophie had been moved from the Convalescent
Home at Clamart back to the hospital and that doctors had given up all hope of her
recovery.
I was moved back to my hotel with my left leg in a plaster cast. The next Saturday I
was called and told my x-ray revealed there was still something wrong with my foot,
asking me to return to hospital Monday. They were about to operate when my
surgeon noticed my foot was swollen and couldn’t possibly operate until it subsided. I
stayed in the hospital until Saturday where they performed another manipulation and
put on another plaster cast. I returned on crutches to my hotel, and was immobilized
for two weeks.
Last night I received a further letter from Madame Raynaud which describes
Sophie’s end. Madame Raynaud was with her to the end and she died at 3 p.m. on
Friday the 5th Feb with her hand in Madame Raynaud’s hoping to the end that I
should be able to get there before she died. She was buried in her blue brocade
gown.
name to reflect their wider ministry, to Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF). This meant
that he often crossed paths with one of his nephews and one of his nieces.
His nephew, Percy Moore and his wife Amy were, from 1952, developing the OMF work in
Malaya. Whenever they were in Singapore during those years they always went to see him.
Percy had a great admiration for his uncle. In Amy’s account she adds:
It was here that we first met ‘Sophie’ who became GFA’s close friend and who
helped to give him the warmth and affection which he so much missed.
Sadly, on 15th February 1954 his family in Canada received the following telegram:
MY SOPHIE DIED PARIS FIFTH INSTANT STOP WRITING DAD
The next day he wrote the following clarification,
“My telegram last night will have advised you of the home call of my dearest Sophie
on the 5 February in the hospital in Paris. Her end was painless thank God and her
kind friends saw to her burial in a plot of ground at Bayneux - suburb of Paris
I Moved 1 Feb. from the Station Hotel to the Cathay into a beautiful apartment with a
view right over the heart of Singapore, away out to sea. I went, just after the move, to
a quiet family party and the women renovating the dining room had left it in such a
state I had to enter from the garden, where I stepped into an uncovered gutter—
breaking four bones in my left ankle. I spent the night in pain. The doctor came,
called ambulance and sent me to hospital where I underwent an emergency
operation. When I got to my bed in the hospital, first thing I was conscious of was a
telegram from Madame Reynaud (a great friend of ours in Paris — herself the widow
of a former French consul General who died at his post n Hongkong) stating that
Sophie’s condition had become very much aggravated’. Two days later I got a letter
from Madame Reynaud stating that Sophie had been moved from the Convalescent
Home at Clamart back to the hospital and that doctors had given up all hope of her
recovery.
I was moved back to my hotel with my left leg in a plaster cast. The next Saturday I
was called and told my x-ray revealed there was still something wrong with my foot,
asking me to return to hospital Monday. They were about to operate when my
surgeon noticed my foot was swollen and couldn’t possibly operate until it subsided. I
stayed in the hospital until Saturday where they performed another manipulation and
put on another plaster cast. I returned on crutches to my hotel, and was immobilized
for two weeks.
Last night I received a further letter from Madame Raynaud which describes
Sophie’s end. Madame Raynaud was with her to the end and she died at 3 p.m. on
Friday the 5th Feb with her hand in Madame Raynaud’s hoping to the end that I
should be able to get there before she died. She was buried in her blue brocade
gown.
