The Ideal Wife
Typical of Gordon’s tender heart was one of his most poignant diary entries—”Thank God for Lulu.”
Lulu had been the Moyes’ family pet for more than nine years. A dog of no ordinary intelligence she fitted well into this extraordinary family. No matter what hour of the day or night Gordon arrived home, Lulu gave him a tail-wagging welcome. She loved each member of the family with a doggie devotion that asked no questions and made no judgments.
Old age finally took its toll and Lulu died from pneumonia. She left a void in the Moyes’ family that no subsequent pet ever filled.
Besides the normal tasks that superintending WCM entailed were satisfying events such as a ground-breaking ceremony for the Alan Walker Village, planned to care for 188 elderly people. These new units supplemented the proposed Frank Vickery Village where another 350 aged persons would find a home.
On the fund raising side, Gordon beamed when a giant garage sale at Burwood netted $3,600, plus another $900 from the opportunity shop, but the beam faded when disaster loomed for the annual Fair.
The railway unions chose that week to announce a sixteen day all-out strike and some of the Wesley ladies were almost in tears.
“What will we do?” they wailed.
The Spring Fair was the culmination of their twelve months’ hard work. Would it all be wasted? Should they postpone the Fair?
“No,” Gordon was adamant. “The plans are too far advanced to change now, all the advertising and publicity has gone out. We will pray for the Lord’s blessing. The Spring Fair must go ahead.”
Go ahead it did. On the appointed day an armada of private cars ferried volunteers and goods to the city and every bus belonging to the Wesley Mission was pressed into service to collect and transport perishable items to the Fair.
Many faithful supporters from outer suburbs could not come, but city dwellers pressed in to buy. When the final figures were added the projected sales were down by $10,000, but the total was $132,500. Which, considering the circumstances this was an undeniable answer to prayer.
A few months later, glorious weather and no strikes led to a successful garden party at Government House. Two thousand people attended, resulting in $6,000 net profit for the mission.
The end of 1984 brought a special rejoicing for the Moyes family. Youngest son Andrew committed his life to Christ and was baptized at Chatswood Church of Christ.
Gordon’s and Beverley’s birth-dates fell within weeks of each other and after celebrating their fiftieth he wrote in his diary a tribute that any woman would treasure. “Beverley is a most talented woman and a wonderful wife. We are as much in love as at any time in the past 30 years. I pray that we have another 30 years together.”
Anyone who knows the couple personally would agree with Gordon’s sentiment and be quick to admit that Beverley epitomizes the woman that Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, had in mind when he described the ideal wife and mother. Proverbs 31:10-31.
Thirteen year-old Gordon suffered a severe attack of puppy-love the moment he saw young Beverley Vernon enter the Sunday School hall at Box Hill Church of Christ. If his feelings were not at first reciprocated at least his advances were not repulsed, and apart from one or two teen-age dates with others, the two have been `special friends’ from childhood.
Although they were still very young and engagement and marriage lay far in the future, from the day that Gordon decided upon a career in the ministry, Beverley accepted her role as a prospective minister’s helpmeet. Already she was an accomplished musician and well-instructed by her mother in sewing and all the household arts. Naturally optimistic, she was blessed with a ready smile, a common- sense outlook on life and a tender heart—all admirable traits for a minister’s wife.
In that role she spent untold of hours sewing and cooking for church fetes and functions, providing countless meals for guests as well as boys on parole who perhaps had never before tasted home- cooked food. She provided music for numerous church services, choirs, youth rallies and other functions. She taught Sunday School in every church they pastored—including the morning of the 4th of June 1962 and at midnight their first child, Jenny, was born.
Above all her other attributes, Beverley was always there. Ready to provide tea, cake and comfort to a distraught visitor; lend a shoulder for a lovelorn teen-ager’s tears; be a receptive listening post for a husband always bursting with new plans and ideas; and fill in as a `minute-woman’ in any emergency that arose in home or church.
Soon after the Moyes moved to Sydney in 1979 Beverly became aware of the plight of homeless people in inner Sydney.
“I never saw anything like this in Melbourne,” Beverley murmured as they were being shown around one of the Wesley Central Mission’s many institutions.
The place in question was a building in Francis Street where more than one hundred derelict men sought shelter. Unshaved, unkempt, some of them half-crazed from a lifetime wasted on booze and bad habits, others too old to care about anything, crowded together in deplorable conditions.
“Poor things,” Beverley’s tender heart went out to them. “What an existence.”
“At least they have food and clothes and some kind of shelter,” a staff member pointed out. “There are many others who are not so lucky. In any case, the Mission is preparing better quarters for them in our Burke Street building.”
Beverley did not reply. She had found her cause.
From then on, while Gordon worked up front, planning and raising money to buy, build or begin new enterprises, Beverley worked quietly behind the scenes helping raise money to keep his schemes afloat.
A few months after attaining her half-century Beverley received news that she had been voted as one of the top ten in the Bi- Centennial Authority’s “Women ‘88” awards.
Although greatly honoured to be chosen as one of the twenty outstanding women, she felt slightly over-awed when they were flown to the Hilton Hotel in Melbourne to receive their award. Ita Buttrose, Marjorie Jackson the Olympic swimmer, Margaret Whitlam and the others were all clever women always in the public eye—all she had done was try to help the poor and homeless.
Those who knew her did not share her humility. They felt she deserved the honour.
Also in the important Bi-Centenary Year, the City of Sydney chose her as an Outstanding Citizen of the Year and awarded her a gold medal and an illuminated address.
In recognition of her charitable work Beverley’s name appeared in the Queen’s Birthday Honours’ list as a Member of the Order of Australia. For someone content to bask in her husband’s glory, the honour seemed overwhelming.
“What have I done to deserve this?” Beverley appeared more embarrassed than delighted but as far as her proud family were concerned the honour was no more than her due.
This was not the final recognition that Beverley received. On the 12th of December, 1989, she was made a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary.
As well as the important task of planning the annual Spring Fair, Beverley was elected as an elder of the WCM church. This involved her in many different aspects of service: counselling, visiting in hospitals and private homes, leading home Bible study groups, providing hospitality, and using her secretarial skills by attending to Gordon’s personal correspondence at home. When rostered for duty in church services Elder Beverley Moyes takes her turn at serving communion or offering the public prayer.
Little wonder that Gordon echoes the words of the wise man: “Whoso findeth such a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord.” Proverbs 18:22.
