Training summary this week: NONE! Ha! Various reasons including a community bonfire for 130 to organise (good times) but I'm sure if I'd tried hard I could have done better. So it's a cheap week on the self-sponsorship front but I am vowing to do better this week.
Let's move on from this teeny, tiny problem of a lack of running.
I've been reading a great book called something like "A non-running woman's Marathon". It's not called that but it's similar and the book is in my bedroom, "Downton Abbey" final episode is on and frankly I'm not walking upstairs to fetch it. Anyway, it's written by someone who has even less fitness than I (i.e. literally none- she describes reaching for the remote control as strenuous) who decided to run a marathon in memory of her Grandad. She talks about needing a good reason for running such a ridiculously long way that will stand up to the persuasive, crazy thoughts of an oxygen-deprived brain in training. For example, the reason of needing to get thinner falls down when you're running. I simply think "bring on the cake if it gets me out of even another step". But a good reason, like a late Grandfather is enough to keep you going.
You will already know that I'm going through this ordeal in order to raise money for British Heart Foundation in memory of our best mate, Verz as he was known to us. I've already cried sad tears (and therefore, wasted precious body fluids) whilst out running, thinking about Verz as my inspiration. Mark (aka Verz) died very suddenly in February of this year and we have been left devastated by the loss of him. I'm sure I'll write more about how Mark, his life and premature death have affected us in the future but he was my husband's best mate and his words sum him up best. So here is the tribute to Mark from his funeral, written and read by my husband, the lovely and brave Matt Elsey.
This is the easiest thing I have ever had to do yet the hardest thing at the same time. I consider it an honour to pay tribute to my best friend, Verz. I tried to write Mark but I don’t think I have ever called him that! Trying to sum up his life, personality, character and calling in a few minutes, as you will all appreciate is a pretty big task, in fact it is impossible.
I can’t give you a definitive moment when we became friends, we just did. Our friendship, although focused around our involvement with the corps here in Felixstowe, quickly developed into a relationship that others would probably be described as brotherly. In Fact, my mum recalled one evening Verz coming to our house about tea time and enjoyed a steak or something rather tasty only for my Dad to be told on his arrival home that Verz had eaten his tea and there were some sausage in the fridge!
I am not the only one that is grateful to Verz for his friendship and willingness to share his life and home in our youth. His house became the venue for numerous takeaways, board games, phase ten marathons, friends viewing on a Friday and many many happy memories of our youth group. Allow, he did get some ribbing for his strange obsession with Coke. This was compounded by a Doll he brought that seemed to be watching our every move! If you were to look in his fridge at his house at the Downs it would have consisted of Milk, butter and coke! I’m not sure his washing machine ever got used either! Even up to a couple of weeks before his passing he would return home to Jean with a load or two of washing. A domestic godess he was not but a hospitable, loving and sharing friend he always was. I, along with many others can only thank God for those years we spent sharing life with him.
To say that Verz and I were inseparable is probably not an understatement. Lizzy certainly questioned me on a number of occasions as to whom was more important in my life, Her or Verz! For example, when working for P and O Ferries we went on a romantic trip to Bruges in Belgium 3 days before Christmas, just the 3 of us. One of my lasting memories of that trip is ice skating in the city centre and 20 mins into our time Verz complaining that his right skate was hurting his foot. On closer inspection having two left skates may have been the cause. Nothing worried him, his approach to life was stress free and taking everything in his stride. No matter what the situation Verz would not faulter and would be the one prepared to come to anyone’s aid. When I left Felixstowe to go to the SA training college, I had a crash on the A12 halfway to the college. It was Verz that got in his car with my dad to pick me up and took me to London and drove back very late on a Sunday night. When Lizzy and I suffered a miscarriage 2 years ago, Verz’s response was to commit to fast and pray each week until Elsey junior was born. In one of his emails he said “After all the attitude of thanksgiving is not circumstances dependant.” Katherine was born 12 months later.
Of course Verz’s passion was sport, any sport really but of course Football. Playing as a junior for Trimley Red Devils he was spotted has having great potential as a centre back. He went on to play for the Salvation Army team in Stowemarket and is 9th on the appearance list but a lot lower for the Goal scoring one. It might have been a dream but I even remember his scoring with his foot once! Verz’s, main strength came in his strong tackling. Even in training many of us would go home having been kicked, I mean, tackled by him. He went on to manage the reserve team, which you would have thought would have meant I got picked every week but alas (mainly because I wasn’t that great) he dropped me to the bench, unless they need a Goalkeeper!
Of course, we know that sport was to become the medium in which he would invest his life and follow a calling that would take him all around the world playing football. Yet, for us the place where we spent most time was on the golf course. I was not always the most controlled golfer yet Verz had such patience. Alistar told me of a time where they were playing at Felixstowe and he decided to go for the green. First attempt in the farmers field, second the same and again the third. Not once did he lose his rag. Even though he played tough on the football pitch, he never over stepped the mark and was a true exponent of sportsman ship.
One of the greatest joys for me and so many of his friends was the year he discovered Ambassadors in Sport. On deciding to take redundancy from Lloyds TSB he made himself open to discover the next calling of God on his life. I have since discovered that the Bank offered him a really good package to stay but once he came into contact with AIS at Roots 7 years ago it was like a revelation in his life. The best testimony I can give to this revelation is the stories that have come to the fore since his death and his desire to follow where God called even when called to move to South Africa. This is a guy that was obedient in faith, always! Within a few months of his internship with AIS you knew that this was it, this was what Verz was being prepared to do. It was the calling that captured his passion for football, his desire to know God and his hope that others may know him too. I want to say thank you to AIS for investing in him and believing in him. We pray for your whole organisation as I know that there are not many parts of the AIS family he has not impacted in some way.
The things I have missed out: Him and Trevor as the ugly sisters in a youth panto, following England all around Europe, ITFC to Rome, his time at Lloyds TSB, his premed blond hair, various band trips, Sketches with the youth, his Views form Verz newsletters, his complete lack of a sense of direction, cricket for IBC, Fifa late into the night and my lasting memory will be of him shouting at our TV during the England Netherlands watch and him saying “oh no not Bopara” who then went on to smash the winning runs and so much more that you will hold dear in your memory of him.
To finish, I want to reflect my own love for this amazing friend. It was hard enough to start writing this tribute but to finish it is even more painful. The word that keeps coming up in conversation, written and spoken tribute is the word; legacy. Verz never set out to leave his own legacy but a legacy that would reflect the king of the kingdom he served. There is a sign in my office that Versey brought for me: “My Boss is a Jewish carpenter”. He knew who his boss/manager was! He would be astonished by the out pouring of love and tributes to his legacy that have come to light. Yet, he would simple shrug his shoulders, give you a little cheeky wink and smile and get on with what living out his life for God.
Bob, Jean, Michelle and Jonny, Nathan and Edward you can be proud of what Mark has not only achieved but the person he has become in the process. We will continue to pray for God’s comfort for you in the days to come.
Within the Salvation Army tradition we would say; Mark Versey good and faithful servant, Well done.
In a football tradition I invite you to give thanks through a minutes applause.
Well done Verz, Well done
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