I lost an old friend

As I was surfing for something obscure last evening I stumbled upon an obituary that made me stop and take a deep breath. A dear friend was found murdered in Mobile, Alabama. It was all so senseless to me. William Joseph "Bill" Lumalcuri was one of the finest men I have ever know. I met Bill when I had just graduated from university and had moved into my first apartment. I lived upstairs and he moved into the one below me. He was a little Italian guy from New York City but he like the South because that was where his mom was from. He was an Ole Miss graduate and settled in Tupelo to be a middle school counselor. Bill was a great person. He was the kind of person that would give you the shirt off his back and the food off his table and never think about how he was going to eat. He was one of the first people I ever met that bought things in bulk because it was cheaper in the long run.
My birthday is August 7 and his was December 7, 1947. I would call him on Pearl Harbor day and he would call me on what he referred to as the day after the bomb dropped. We had a strange and wonderful friendship. He was Ole Miss to the bone and I wasn't. I was taller than he was by a mile. He worried about me a lot because I had a tendency to be a loose cannon. He was my knight in shining armor with no strings attached and the wisest person I probably will ever know.
If I didn't get up and go to church Bill would be knocking on my door inviting me to go with him to St. James. I was already looking for a church home and little did Bill know that I was interested in the Catholic faith. Years later after all of my journeys and trying on different churches, when I finally was in full membership in the Catholic Church, Bill laughingly said he was at fault for bringing me those times. I remember asking him if he would be god-parent to my daughters when they were born. He declined saying he hadn't really been a faithful Catholic but he acted like he did take on the role nevertheless. He would come to see them on their birthdays and send them little happies from their 'uncle' Bill. I'm sorry he didn't get to come to their confirmation last year or to know that the oldest has graduated and is on her way to university in the fall. I can only hope that there will be a 'Bill' in her life to steer her along the right path.
Because of his goodness he is now dead. I am sure it's all going to be something really stupid and the guy that shot him will probably get off by reason of insanity. Bill tried to help everyone he met. It was a character flaw I guess. He tried to see only the good in everyone. He was the kind of person that would lift you up when you were low. He was a great help to a lot of students with problems in his over 30 years of teaching. He was a great help to all of the people that passed through his life.
Bill never married, it was his penance, he told me once, for something in his wilder younger college years. It never seemed right to pursue that any farther and I never pressed the issue. It was his decision to make and he made it and if he had wanted to share any more I am sure he would have.
Bill Lumalcuri was a great guy. The world should mourn the passing of the likes of him. He truly tried to live as if yesterday was history and tomorrow is a mystery. He lived as Christ wanted him to live, in the today without trying to second guess what tomorrow was going to bring.

One scripture I always connected with Bill is this:
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20).
That is what William Joseph Lumalcuri lived by. Goodbye my old friend. You will live on in my memory and with Jesus.