Funeral, Eulogy, and Memorial Talks




FUNERAL ADDRESS FOR EMMETT ALLAN SIZEMORE (1951-2021)

[Talk given by John E. Enslen at Pineview Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Wetumpka, Alabama, on November 1, 2021.]


Emmett Allan Sizemore went by the name of Allan.
 
Allan was a 16-year-old living in Mobile. He had a high school friend named Tavit who was a good member of the church. Tavit invited Allan to be taught by the missionaries. He was taught and baptized.
 
After a time, Allan fell into inactivity. Life as usual went forward—work, marriage, children. In 1984, at age 33, he took a job in Hamilton, Alabama. His old high school friend Tavit was still keeping up with him. Tavit asked a relative of his, an older man named Jim Colvin, who lived in Hamilton, to contact Allan. Jim Colvin and his wife happened to be serving as branch missionaries in Hamilton. They contacted Allan who was still receptive to the gospel. The young elders retaught Allan, and taught his wife Barbara, and two sons living with them, 9-year-old Brian and 14-year-old Casey. Barbara, Brian, and Casey were baptized into the Church. Later that year, on October 25, 1984, Allan received his patriarchal blessing from Patriarch Joseph R. Johnson of the Bessemer Alabama Stake, whom Allan had likely never met. In that blessing, Allan was told four things that I want to share with you:

1. “You will live to see much chaos and turmoil come to the earth.” Between 1984 and 2021, a period of 37 years, Allan indeed was witness to much chaos and turmoil in the earth, including seeing his son Brian serve in the Iraqi War. He has a journal entry dated October 19, 1987, wherein he states: “The stock market suffered its biggest drop since the 1929 crash. The US Navy attacked an Iranian position in the Persian Gulf in retaliation for their attack on a tanker. Trouble in the economy and possible war in the Middle East. What’s about to happen next?”
 
2. “I bless you that you might further…, strengthen, and grow in your education.” Allan continued with his efforts to become an expert in wastewater management, eventually achieving the status of Grade IV Operator. He completed two correspondence courses in wastewater treatment and supervisory management from universities in California and Michigan. His services were in demand, and his employment took him to many locations, including Mobile, Gadsden, Hamilton, Gulf Shores, Athens, TN, Greenville, and Monroeville.
 
3. “You will be called to serve in many priesthood quorums in the church, and you will have the blessing to serve over the flock, and will have the blessing to direct the lives of our Father in Heaven’s children here upon the earth for good.” Alan served in various priesthood quorums in the Hamilton, Robertsdale, Greenville, Highland Home, and Monroe Branches. In the Monroe Branch, he was the branch president for almost 10 years. He was known to be kind and a good friend to those he served. When Wetumpka member John Rawls left the army in 1997 at age 28, he and Sherena and their two children at the time lived in Mexia for three months and attended the Monroe Branch where President Allan Sizemore presided. John has told Brian that John will never forget the kindness shown by Allan to him and his family, including his visiting mother, and that the following words of a church hymn remind John of President Sizemore:
 
Each life that touches ours for good
Reflects thine own great mercy, Lord;
Thou sendest blessings from above
Thru words and deeds of those who love.

When such a friend from us departs,
We hold forever in our hearts
A sweet and hallowed memory,
Bringing us nearer, Lord, to thee.

Not long after serving as branch president, Allan’s fully functioning life was cut short in 2003 at the early age of 53 when he contracted debilitating Parkinson’s disease.

4. The fourth quote from his patriarchal blessing, is this: “I bless you that when the time comes that you go home, that our Father in Heaven will say: “Well done my good and faithful servant, enter into thy joy.”
 
May these memories of Emmett Allan Sizemore bring you peace, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.


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