By CATHY DYSON
The Rev. Ernest Moss hasn't been well enough to preach in public for 20 years.
But when he talks about his life, Moss, who turns 90 in March, quotes one Scripture after another.
He starts with the proper training parents must give a child, then leads into the promise of a long life to those who honor their fathers and mothers.
In response to one question after another, he sprinkles in references to the message of Moses or the miracles of Jesus.
"As long as I'm able, I'm gonna talk about the Bible," he said, emphasizing each syllable as if he were in the pulpit--instead of his living room.
His wife, Hazel, nodded as he talked, then summed up things in her own way.
"If you've got love within, you're gonna have it without," she said in an almost singsong voice. "That's been my trademark: love within, love without."
Ernest and Hazel Moss have shared the same beliefs during 61 years of marriage. Their strong faith and work ethic made them "role models, not only for the African-American community but for our nation's community at large," said their daughter, Princess Moss.
The Mosses are yet another couple on Lewiston Road in the Bumpass area of Spotsylvania County who have been together for more than half a century.
A Dec. 21 story in The Free Lance-Star mentioned five couples, within a mile of each other in the Lake Anna area, who are enjoying the golden years of marriage.
The Mosses are a little farther down Lewiston Road, closer to Louisa County.
They never considered living anywhere else.
Ernest, the youngest of eight children, wanted to stay close to his ailing parents and help them with the farm. He prayed for a job that would allow him time to tend to his chores.
He found such a schedule as a Spotsylvania school-bus driver. He picked up students for about 33 years, and his wife did the same for about 18 years. Both drove through the 1970s, to the best of their memories.
Ernest laughed when he recalled the first time he saw Hazel. She was 18, he was 28, and he didn't have the time for, or interest in, a woman.
"I thought I wouldn't bother with a wife, but when I saw her combing her hair, I changed my mind," he said.
Hazel laughed, too, touching her shoulder-length hair, which was longer and fuller when they married in 1947.
Both worked hard to raise their family and help others. He became an ordained preacher, and drove a cab or worked in a mechanic's shop when he wasn't in the cornfields or behind the wheel of a bus.
She was a substitute teacher.
They grew up in a time when rural residents had no choice but to be self-sufficient.
"It wasn't no Safeway, it wasn't no telephone, it was 'Go out in the field, boy,' " Ernest said. "If you didn't get it from the ground, you just didn't have it."
Hazel finished high school, but Ernest quit in the seventh grade to work. Both made it clear to their children that they would be able to take advantage of opportunities the elder Mosses never had.
Ernest was a cab driver when Mary Washington College enrolled white females only. He often took students from the city bus stop to the nearby campus, and some people made racial remarks about him.
He didn't dwell on their meanness; he and Hazel never did. Instead, he prayed that his girls might attend such a college.
Both daughters--Princess Moss and Hazel Putty--graduated from Mary Washington. Their son, Erskine, graduated from Virginia State University.
When asked how the Mosses put three children through college on meager salaries, Ernest stated simply: "God did it."
Hazel tried to explain that they saved what they could, but Ernest stated, more emphatically: "God did it."
All three children recognized that they had to do well in school to earn scholarships, which they did, Princess said.
But Ernest wasn't going to let the story end there. For the third time he insisted that "God did it"--and no one tried to say otherwise.
Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425
Email: cdyson@freelancestar.com