Weeks, Gary, and Bob Cretney.
156 pp +32 pp of colour photos.
Gospel Folio Press, Port Colborne, Ontario, 2010
Some of us boomers remember the 1973 hit song,
Could you ever love me again
If I let you down,
Disappointed you?
Could you ever love me again?
If I ceased to do little things for you,
Could you ever love me again?
Somewhere, somehow, somewhen,
If I let you down, girl,
Could you ever love me again?
Well, this is the story of the man who sang it—Gary Weeks. The book opens with
a review of the singing and comedy team Gary and Dave. Gary Weeks and
Dave Beckett met in school in grade seven, they went through high school
together, they canoed together in Algonquin Park, they attended the University
of Western Ontario in London, they each established themselves as pilots and,
in the early ‘70s, while still at university, they started performing in clubs
and releasing a few recordings. The run-up to their expected music success
takes only three pages of the book. In less than ten pages the bubble has
broken and Gary is “broke and broken-hearted.”
Was there blame to be placed? Why did the big New York recording firm drop
Gary and Dave back there in 1978? Gary tells us that he returned to Montreal
and fell into “months of deep discouragement and serious financial problems.”
He says, “How did this happen to me?...I was approaching the pinnacle of
success…Now, I’m just a nobody.” Looking back after all these years, what does
Gary now think of all these events? “The Lord had finally gotten my
attention!”
The rest of the book goes back over his life to fill in details— he was raised
by a single mother, he was an NHL-quality hockey player with Leaside Lions, he
got a “phony” B.A. degree, he piloted for Air Canada.
But Weeks doesn’t leave us there. He tells how his life turned around and he
came into full time service for the Lord, first as a youth leader in Toronto,
then as a missionary in Eire (for some years in Newcastle West, County
Limerick). He tells us of his own conversion to Christ at Pioneer Camp in
Muskoka; he tells of his wife, Claudette’s conversion on the island of Fiji,
and his mother’s, and even his grandmother’s.
Gary has spoken at Shoreacres Bible Chapel on numerous occasions. For example,
I have personal notes from his visit on April 21, 2010: “The characteristics
of all the Lord’s healings in the New Testament and thus the tests for all
God’s miraculous healings are (1) Was it immediate? (2) Was it obvious? (3)
Was it complete? (4) Was it permanent?”
We enjoyed Gary’s story— we felt some of the exhilaration of his successes, we
felt the wrench of his failures. We want Gary to continue to live for Christ;
we’ve caught the good infection and want to live for Him too.
Gary presented a riddle early in the book and it’s fitting to end with it
here: “How can a person born once die twice, and how can a person born twice
die once?” Read his book for the answer.
Reviewed by Glenn Wilson
"Could you ever love me again" c.1973.
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