Vale John Frederick Berger

Eulogy for my Good Friend John Frederick Berger
 
By Craig Manners
 
South Yarra Presbyterian Church, 10.30 am followed by internment at Beenak Cemetery K8 on 14th December 2023
 
Born in the inner southern Adelaide suburb of Lower Mitcham, on the 4th January 1932, to parents Gertrude Myra (nee Schmitt) and Leslie John Rittberger. (John and sister Margaret were both born at their home at 5 Denman Tce).
 
John had four siblings:
 
Older brothers:
Lindsay Gordon d. aged c. 95;
Rex (no middle name) d. aged c. 95;
Older sister Lola (again no middle name) died from bowel cancer aged 85.
Younger sister Margaret is 4 years younger than John and currently living with emphysema in a nursing home in Adelaide.
 
John was never married and had no children. Apart from his sister Margaret, the wider family is made up of lots of nieces and nephews.
 
Both of John’s parents were born in South Australia, from parents who were all born in Germany.
 
John’s father, Leslie, who I think was raised in foster homes, fought for Australia in Germany in the First World War. He was a prisoner of war, working as a laborer on a farm in Germany, and was listed as missing in action for 2 years after the war finished. When he returned to Adelaide he worked on the tramways.
 
Leslie got quite sick not long after his return and eventually died from kidney related disease in around 1941 when John was nine.
 
John was then raised by his mother Gertrude, who loved baking, and loved sugar, which according to John possible aided her death from pancreatic cancer aged 85.
 
Having heard John relay some stories from his upbringing and childhood, it was clear that he had a relatively normal and healthy childhood, a close relationship with his mother and siblings, and that he obviously was affected by not having his father around.
 
I spoke to his sister Margaret last week and she shared some stories from their childhood together. She confirmed that theirs was a fun-filled, adventurous childhood. Although John was four years her senior she lovingly referred to John then and still now, as Little Johnny.
 
Now, although they were close, according to Margaret, Little Johnny mischievously tormented his younger sister at every opportunity. But in a good way, with lots of fun pranks and teasing. Margaret mentioned that when they were growing up, there was no TV (it hadn’t been invented yet!), so the five siblings had to make their own fun. They were out and about much of the time having adventures and fun. There was nearly always a game of cricket or other activity in the street with the siblings and other neigbourhood children.
 
Margaret mentioned one such occasion, when the siblings were all playing and then when it got dark, suddenly the power went off. It wasn’t until the next day when an electrician investigated the outage, that they discovered the main power line going into the metre box had been cut! After some questioning from Mum, it was revealed by 8yo Little Johnny, that he was the culprit who did the cutting, just wanting to find out what would happen. It was a miracle that he was not killed!
 
John’s first job was as a mail delivery boy when he was 15 in the Adeliade CBD. This was followed by some other administrative type jobs, before his main career as an insurance assessor and claims administrator, including assessing ships in the harbour. This was when John changed his name to be known as John Berger, to make it easier to convey his name to his clients. He left South Australia, I think in the 1970s, with the insurance company, initially moving to Sydney for awhile and then down to Melbourne where he settled. John bought his house at 425 Burnley St, Burnley VIC 3121 in 1979.
 
The most significant and defining event of John’s life was in his 30’s when the Lord Jesus Christ revealed himself to John, and John received Christ as his Saviour, Lord and King.
 
Over the following years John was active in attending a number of churches. I believe his favourite of all though was South Yarra Presbyterian Church, for which, as do many of us here today, John had a deep affection. I think I am right in saying that John was a member of SYPC for around 25-30 years. It is very fitting that Prof. Douglas Milne, one of John’s favourite preachers, is able to preach for John’s service today, and that two other men who ministered God’s word to John over the years, Bill Medley and Ben Nelson, are also here today.
 
I first met John here at SYPC in around 1998. We became friends, and over the years our friendship grew. I saw in John a godly and wise man, who had a deep love for Jesus and for God’s word.
 
In around April 2018 John asked me if I would consider being his “Attorney for Personal Matters” as well as his “First Medical Treatment Decision Maker”. I accepted this and felt honored that John would ask me. Although we were friends then, this request made us closer friends over the coming years.
 
In January 2021, John started having a series of falls (around four over a two-week period), the last one of which caused an injury to his head, which ended up being diagnosed as a sub-dural hematoma. This eventuated in John requiring surgery at the Alfred to alleviate the pressure building up on his brain. John spent around four weeks in the Alfred, and then around another four weeks in St. Vincent’s on the Park for rehabilitation.
 
I visited John most days while he was in hospital, and during this time our friendship continued to grow, and I personally felt very blessed to have such a friend., and such a deepening friendship.
 
John eventually got well enough to insist that the doctors discharge him in around late March 2021 and reluctantly, due to John’s admirable persistence (read: the doctors and staff had no choice if they wanted any peace at all!), they released him and let me take him home.
 
I continued visiting John at home, and tried my best over the following weeks to arrange for all manner of home help, cleaners, medical visits, disability aids, personal medical alarm systems, gardening help, you name it.
 
However, as those who knew John could attest, this was pretty much mostly in vain, as John almost always rejected all forms of assistance, and often at the last minute. As an example, I managed to get John to agree to having a regular cleaning lady but upon her arrival for her first shift, John simply refused to let her in the house, saying that he did not need any help, and that his house was clean enough!
 
I did admire John’s spirit of independence, and, true to form, in a fairly short time he was up and around mowing his lawns every two weeks as usual.
 
Jayni and I would regularly recommend we start looking for an aged care facility for John to eventually move into, however he would have nothing to do with such an idea.
 
To enable us to keep an eye on John’s health, and to assist him in remaining active, we arranged for John to catch a train from Burnley up to Upper Ferntree Gully most Saturday’s from around May/June 2021. I would pick John up at the platform at UFG station and take him to our place for a coffee and chat for a couple of hours.
 
We would usually finish our time together with a Bible reading and a time of prayer. I must say that this was a highlight for me, as I could listen to John pray for ages. His wealth of knowledge of the Bible and his deep love for Christ would flow freely and always be a rich blessing for the hearer.
 
Earlier on, from when I would visit John at his home many years ago, well before his health issues, I came to know that John was a very godly man and that he was indeed a man of prayer. I knew this because when we would have a cup of tea together at his kitchen table, I noticed things like, prayer requests in missionary newsletters, with many underlined pencil marks and circles around them, showing that he had indeed been diligent in praying for those things. His well-read Bible was always close at hand too, filled with church service sheets as bookmarks.
 
Over our long friendship of 25 years, but over the last six years especially, I came to see in John, a true friend, a trusted confidante, a wise counsellor, and a genuine man of faith, someone who was a good example to my five sons of a faithful, persevering, positive follower of Jesus Christ.
 
While John was approaching 92, his death came as a shock to me, as I assumed and hoped he would at least live until he was 95 like his brothers. He was relatively healthy, no medications, good simple diet. But although it was a shock for those left behind, it is when we realize where John is now, that we can feel real joy.

​I am very thankful to God for having brought John into my life. I pray that John’s earthly departure will enliven those of us remaining, as we are reminded of the harsh inevitability of earthly death, to live our lives fully for Christ, in who alone eternal life is found.
 
For those who have trusted in Jesus Christ, and have this eternal life, we will indeed see John again.
 
My dear friend John Berger: “Until we meet again in heaven.”

​Craig Manners