It was the final gift Becky Moon gave her husband.
“He just wanted to be published,” said Moon who took the writings of her husband and put them into a book called “Relevant Ramble: Musings of a Methodist Preacher in Recovery.”
The Rev. Charles F. “Chuck” Moon III died on March 1, 2020, and his book was published in January 2021.
“I think he would be delighted, so delighted,” she said.
Charles F. “Chuck” Moon III spent 50 years in the ministry and 30 years in recovery. He’d spent many years writing his thoughts in journals and had considered the idea of publishing. He and Alex Eash had gone through many of his musings, editing and compiling them before his death.
The journals had been compiled into small booklets that his wife said he would look at and smile. But after he died, she knew it needed to go beyond that. The volume represents four of his 11 journals.
Chuck and Becky were married for about three decades. He was an alcoholic when she met him, but he didn’t know it.
Alcoholics, she said, often try to hide their addiction, and they think they are getting away with it.
“They hide it until the only person who doesn’t know is the alcoholic,” she said.
She remembered going to see him one day at his parsonage around 4 p.m., and he’d already been drinking – a lot. When she arrived, he was visibly drunk. She knew he had a problem, but he couldn’t see it. They had a brief argument, and she left.
“I walked away. I didn’t look back,” she said.
The next day, however, he called her.
“He said ‘I think I’m an alcoholic,’” she said.
Becky said she hopes the book will give people a sense of who he was.
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He was a mix of sacred and profane. He was sarcastic, funny, gentle and kind. He was well-read and educated. At 6’6”, he towered above most people, but he was a gentle giant, she said.
“He had a unique way of expressing things,” she said.
While she knew why she loved him, one experience showed her why he was an effective pastor.
Becky remembered a particularly hard day. She’d been working as a dental hygienist and walked away from her job. She went to see Chuck in his office and asked if she could talk to him.
“He leaned forward and reached out his hand. The look of compassion. I realized that’s what people saw in him,” she said.
The book may have been a gift to him, but in many ways, it’s been a gift to her, she said.
“I’m so glad I did it. It’s like having him back,” she said.
The book is available on Amazon.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
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