JOEL FERRIERA

MBE

June 1, 2018

Joel was one of the individuals I met when I first visited the Madison Avenue Baptist Church. After we talked for a while he gave me one of his great Ferriera smiles,  grabbed my hand and said: “I think I’m going to like you.”

Joel was gay and freely talked about his journey. He was wonderfully flamboyant. His parents Joe and Mary Joe were very conservative Christians but loved him deeply and accepted him as he was.

He served on just about every board and committee in the church at one time or another. Once while an usher at a Sunday Morning Service, he wore a see-through shirt and pants. It was completely him. A few of the old fuddy-duddies were taken back but most of us just enjoyed it as he passed those offering plates.

Judd a tall handsome man was his life partner. They were inseparable. He had a faithful loving sister.

He developed full blown AIDS in about 1990. Over the next few years he had Kaposi sarcoma all over his body, endless infections and relentless pain. He became completely bed ridden before he died. His mother and father and Judd and his sister were always at his side.

And amazingly he never lost that wonderful smile.