|
On Friday August 18, my Uncle Jim died after a long bout with cancer.
Words cannot express my complete sadness and loss, but this article
in the local paper gives you an idea of what a great man he was...
Jimmy Margeson Children’s Fund of Bolivar
c/o Mimi Shaner
South Street
Bolivar, NY 14715
|
Margeson and Heaney touched so many
Olean Times Hearld, Saturday, August 26, 2000
By John Anderson
Do you ever wonder if anyone will care when you die? Or how life goes
on without you?
This past month, two deaths shut down Allegany
County.
The passing of Jim Margeson and William Heaney Sr. were two of the
most well-attended services Allegany County has seen in quite a while.
The men had many ties to their community. Many offices, including
the Allegany County Office building in Belmont, were temporarily closed
or under-staffed so people could pay their respects.
These two guys were different in age; Bill was 83, Jimmy was 49. But
both were at peace with God and both were ready to die.
But I’m not quite sure about the rest of us.
Bill left a large family and some grandchildren who think the world
of him, while Jim left his Mom, his wife and three sons not old enough
to lose their Dad. As with any wake or funeral that are the result
of someone popular dying, there were plenty of laughs and good stories
shared.
At Mr. Heaney’s wake, people talked how he cut his wife’s head off.
He also levitated her. Yes, among his many talents, he was a magician.
And, it turns out, he was a heck of a writer. With his family by his
side, he produced a piece of paper that would be his final masterpiece
—he wrote his own obituary. Hopefully, he heard the beautiful words
of his grandchildren, Michael and Logan, who eulogized him so eloquently
at his funeral. From the sounds of their speech, they will never forget
their grandfather, and his mark has been made on Angelica permanently.
At Jim Margeson’s wake, it was sad to see the young faces. But it
was expected as Jimmy was the first preschool teacher in Allegany
County, hired in 1986 at Bolivar Central after eight years of teaching
art at Oswayo Valley.
He was a darn good baseball player at Scio Central, for the Bolivar
Town team and he coached all levels of high school sports for 24 years,
including varsity basketball and baseball.
But oh how he was with the kids. Current Bolivar-Richburg Superintendent
Bob Mountain hired Jimmy when he was Bolivar’s curriculum director.
Bob remembers the class Jim taught with Sharon Washer and said Jim
"was a kid at heart ... he absolutely loved working with those little
tykes. He could get along with adults, and he got on the floor and
got along with the children."
Close to 1,000 people visited Schaffner’s Funeral Home in two days.
Wake hours the final day were until 6 p.m. At 6 p.m., the line out
the door was closer to the Memorial Pool than the family inside. I
told Funeral Director Joe Schaffner that at Casino Niagara, they give
people bottled water who have to wait that long. It was worth the
wait. Inside were countless photos, and Jimmy had a tackle box on
his casket with a hand painted sign that said "gone fishin’." Joe
said it was one of the largest funerals he’s ever seen, and said he
saw every one of his past students there to pay respects to "the perfect
preschool teacher."
And after 14 years, Joe doesn’t think he’ll be able to attend another
St. Bonaventure basketball game without his good friend, who was buried
with his Bonnies hat along with other sports teams caps he wore. There
was also a poem written to Jim and his wife Nancy by country music
star Vince Gill. As a writer, I enjoyed a piece Jim wrote in early
April when he knew his time was almost up.
Father Robert Schober liked it too, he read it at the funeral. Jim
wrote a poem called "I’ve Had Plenty," where he explained what’s he’s
done—whether he enjoyed it or regretted it. . .
"Maybe seen life’s movie from beginning to end But know if I did,
I’d see it again In a theatre of His love, where the popcorn’s free
So too the price of admission for you an me."
No doubt there’s two seats in Heaven for Jimmy and William. And for
God, it will be one hell of a double feature.
John Anderson is a Times Herald staff writer. He lives in Wellsville.
|