THE PAPACY CAN NOW END
GERALD CALVERT
What if Jesus is here now? If He came ‘like a thief in the night’ as He warned, you would not know that He was here even if He told you. So, you should start behaving as if He is here, watching.
Gerald was born on the winter solstice of 1940 to George and May Calvert who were eaking out a living share-farming on a cotton farm in the Callide Valley. His and his brother Graham’s first two years were spent crawling on the bark floor of their parent’s shack with a kerosene-tin-roof; this was not long after the war started and George moved his family to Brisbane in the hope of getting regular work for the US Army.
Gerald completed his Electrical apprenticeship at Central Technical College and in 1968 formed his own service company contracting to the Australian Defence Force for the repair and maintenance of X-ray, electro-medical, dental and scientific equipment, later becoming registered by the National Association of Testing Authority to calibrate and certify laboratory balances to five decimal places of a gram.
After setting off to sail around the world in 1976 with a wife and three children 4 to 9 years of age, sadly the adventure came to a watery end when the Yacht was lost on a reef in New Guinea where they lived with the natives in an isolated village until they were found three weeks later.
Despite having changed the name of the yacht from Tauree to Moonshadow Gerald refused to believe in the superstition of renaming a ship. If I was to believe in that I would have to start believing in ghosts and angels and God even, he claimed, and that ain’t going to happen, he would have said. As they had arranged their lives to be away from Gerald’s business for three years they decided they would not go home with their tail between their legs but would salvage what they could and proceed on overland for as long as their small income allowed. They spent the first year traveling through Asia and India, which they all loved, but the strain of traveling 3rd class through India, while caring for a blue-eyed blonde wife and three blue-eyed blonde children, of perfect slave trade age, eventually became too much.
On arrival in London, while there were many campervans for sale, unfortunately, there was nothing suitable for a family of five for an extended period of 12 months or more. Eventually, to the amusement of the pommes, Gerald set up a workshop on a footpath in Putney, where he fitted out a Mercedes 408 delivery van, that also needed a complete engine rebuild. The next 12 months were spent traveling Britain, Europe, and Northern Africa until sadly the news finally caught up with them that Brenda’s brother-in-law, who had flown them from the village they had been wrecked in, had been killed flying fuel into another village.
Although a democratic vote had shown that they all still wanted to keep going, this sad news from home brought their adventure to an end and so they joined the queue outside Australia House waiting to sell their van. Gerald’s creation was perfect for a family of five and included an upstairs bedroom where the kids would ascend through the trap-door to their cubby-house to either play or study on the wall to wall mattress above. But who else was silly enough to be traveling with 3 kids. Despite it being the envy of many Londoners, after going away with their tape-measures the answer was always the same, it just won’t fit in my garage.
Having been unable to sell the van quickly enough and being aware of Brenda’s wish to be home with her sister, they decided to ship it back to Brisbane where it was snapped up for $11000, $4000 more than the total cost in London including shipping.
But there the journey ends, it is from here that Gerald begins to wonder about changing the name of a ship. Two days after arriving home to the fanfare of the press who had maintained contact with them through the grandmothers for two years, they attended a welcome home party. Sadly, due to the strain of getting home, combined with jet-lag Gerald fell asleep at the wheel and their whole world fell apart pretty much fulfilling the words of that dam song Moonshadow. Garth, their 6yr old, flew off the back parcel-ledge, hitting his mother on the back of the neck as he smashed through the front windscreen and landed in the gutter. Brenda suffered a broken neck and ended up an incomplete quadriplegic while Garth, their baby, after being in a coma for four months remained seriously brain-damaged. I don’t know what Cat Stevens was thinking when he wrote that bloody song but every dam word of it has been fulfilled; If I should ever lose my hands I won’t have to work no more, if I should ever lose my feet I won’t have to walk no more, if I should ever lose my mouth I won’t have to talk no more and if I should ever lose my eyes I won’t have to cry no more. Despite the injustice of it all Gerald was the only one totally unhurt, but he also eventually lost most of the use of his right hand and partial use of his left in two work-related accidents later. I can’t say if any of this is related to my eventual “Road to Damascus” experience several years later, but, as Paul had been, Gerald was given a mission by God to not just call the Gentiles but to unite the three Abrahamic religions. No problem Father, I’ll get on it right away.