“Great Captain, a fair wind and the honey lights of home are all you seek."
Ang Adams in Columbia, South Carolina, 1944.
Ang Adams was a husband, a father, a grandfather. He was a brother, an uncle, a son. He was a businessman, a banker, a civic leader. He was a fisherman, a card player, a baby-sitter. Ang was a storyteller about whom every one of us has stories to tell.
There are too many stories to tell about a 77-year life than will fit in this small space. What’s your favorite story?
Maybe the best part of the story is knowing that we all took advantage of opportunities to celebrate his life. Some of you were there to celebrate his safe return from the war and graduation from college. Then there were the births of Susan, Mark, Joni, Tom, and Marian. Later there were first communions, confirmations, graduations, weddings, and wonder of wonders—grandchildren! Seems like there must have been one promotion after another to celebrate! We celebrated with Betty and Ang when they reached their 25th and then their 50th anniversary. Hopefully, those two parties helped make up for the lack of a party in 1942!
Of course, Ang was not a saint and he did experience setbacks, and even failures. But he never seemed to give up. He taught us so much by his ability to pick himself up and move forward. The family journeyed with him onward and upward from Chicago to Los Angeles to San Diego and back to Los Angeles.
Maybe he really was a seafarer more than anything else. Like Odysseus, he set out by sea on a journey from his home. Maybe that explains why he so loved his time in Cabo San Lucas, fishing and watching the sun set. When he started that journey to America at five years of age, he certainly had no idea of what he was searching for. We can only be grateful that he found us and gathered us around to share his life.
That’s what we celebrate today. We celebrate our luck to have had Ang Adams as our captain. We celebrate his journey and his stories.
Go in peace, Ang. We know you have found your fair wind and the honey lights of home.
[From the funeral of Angelo Adams, December 1998. Written by Joni.]
There are too many stories to tell about a 77-year life than will fit in this small space. What’s your favorite story?
Maybe the best part of the story is knowing that we all took advantage of opportunities to celebrate his life. Some of you were there to celebrate his safe return from the war and graduation from college. Then there were the births of Susan, Mark, Joni, Tom, and Marian. Later there were first communions, confirmations, graduations, weddings, and wonder of wonders—grandchildren! Seems like there must have been one promotion after another to celebrate! We celebrated with Betty and Ang when they reached their 25th and then their 50th anniversary. Hopefully, those two parties helped make up for the lack of a party in 1942!
Of course, Ang was not a saint and he did experience setbacks, and even failures. But he never seemed to give up. He taught us so much by his ability to pick himself up and move forward. The family journeyed with him onward and upward from Chicago to Los Angeles to San Diego and back to Los Angeles.
Maybe he really was a seafarer more than anything else. Like Odysseus, he set out by sea on a journey from his home. Maybe that explains why he so loved his time in Cabo San Lucas, fishing and watching the sun set. When he started that journey to America at five years of age, he certainly had no idea of what he was searching for. We can only be grateful that he found us and gathered us around to share his life.
That’s what we celebrate today. We celebrate our luck to have had Ang Adams as our captain. We celebrate his journey and his stories.
Go in peace, Ang. We know you have found your fair wind and the honey lights of home.
[From the funeral of Angelo Adams, December 1998. Written by Joni.]