Several Hundred Remember Lake Elsinore Motorcycle Crash Victim

Several hundred people packed a small Wildomar church Saturday to pay their respects to a man they say always had a smile on his face and place in his heart for all.

The 3 p.m. memorial service for Lake Elsinore resident James Michael Mycroft was standing room only with an overflow crowd that spilled into the parking lot of In The Light Ministries on Monte Vista Street.

Mycroft, a father and husband, was killed Oct. 23 in a . He was 32.

Known as “Big Jim” to those close to him, Mycroft was a friend to everyone and a warm human being, said his wife Bernadette during the service. , she choked back tears to deliver unprepared remarks explaining it was “too soon to come up with words.”

“He would have greeted everyone here,” Bernadette said. He would have told his parents and kids that he loved them, and he would have said to those he didn’t know, “‘It’s such a pleasure to meet you,’” she explained.

Pastor David officiated over Saturday’s service and he said that helping others and being positive was James’ nature. “He understood that his children and family were a blessing, not a burden.”

James’ children also delivered words during the service …  “I love you Daddy.”

Bernadette said if her husband could be in the room Saturday, he would have had this message: “He wants you to live in harmony with others -- make allowances for each other’s faults,” she said. “It was his entire being -- who he was.”

Motorcycle club chapters turned out Saturday, including members of Grand Fathers M/C, Hell’s Angels, and P.O.B.O.B.

For some, presence at the service was deeper than paying respect to a fellow rider.

As slide shows set to mostly country music beamed above the pulpit, many in the audience wept and smiled simultaneously as photos depicting James’ life as a child, a brother, a son, a father, a husband and a friend flashed by.

Bernadette said her husband was truly a happy man. On the day he died, “there was not one thing wrong with the world” in his eyes, she said.

Cleaning out a closet this week, Bernadette said she found a card she had written to James years ago. “I never knew I could be this happy … until I fell in love with you.”

Those words, she said, were just as true today.