8/7/2020:
Our daughter, Charlotte Donlon, is getting out some requested information today. Further details on the memorial celebration service will be available after the weekend. Thank you all for your outpouring of love and comfort to us. Your kind words and stories about how Bill touched your lives are a joy to us in our sorrow!
“Cathy Boyd Byrd, Billy Byrd, Joni Byrd, Carol Boyd Andrews, and I are working on plans for an outdoor celebration (with masks required) honoring and remembering Bill Byrd’s life. This service will be in the Panama City, Florida area in the near future. We hope to have those details finalized soon and will share them in the next few days.
Many who knew and loved Bill/Dad/Papa/Mr. Byrd/Uncle Bill/etc. are asking how to honor his life with memorial gifts. During a call today with Mom, Billy, Joni, and Aunt Carol, we discussed this and agreed that the organizations below were most meaningful to him. But all who knew and loved Bill are welcome to remember him by donating to any Christian ministry or animal shelter that’s important to you.
Bill was very passionate about his church’s missions projects and organizations, especially New Horizons Learning Center, the church’s international missions partners, and Anchorage Children Home.
He was also very passionate about all living creatures and loved and cared for so many pets over the years. I told Mom and everyone on the call today that I’m pretty sure Dad has tracked down St. Francis of Assisi by now. Mom and Dad used Alaqua for pet adoption and Dad was always thankful for this organization’s work. Their website says, “Alaqua Animal Refuge believes that every abused, neglected and homeless animal deserves a second chance.”
Dad was also an integral part of Titus 2, which was founded by and is run by Cathy. He was the IT guy, the assistant bookkeeper, prayer warrior, and Mom’s encourager and supporter in this work. The Titus 2 website says, “Titus 2 Partnership, Inc. is an all volunteer-operated non-profit ministry (501c3) in Bay County, Florida, offered for women seeking substance abuse recovery and life recovery from other life-limiting dysfunctions. Titus 2 Partnership Inc. offers a structured women-only Christian education, discipleship and mentoring program.” Here’s the link on the website to donate.
Mom and the rest of us are so thankful for all of the love, prayers, and support we are receiving as we grieve and remember. Bill loved many and was loved by many.”
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Depart, O Christian soul, out of this world;
In the name of God the Father Almighty who created you;
In the name of Jesus Christ who redeemed you;
In the name of the Holy Spirit who sanctifies you.
May your rest be this day in peace,
and your dwelling place in the Paradise of God.
—BCP
A prayer for my dad who died today. I’m so devastated and sad. I will miss so many things about him. I will cherish the memories, the laughs, how he was so quick to tell me he loved me and was proud of me, the lessons I’ve learned from him, and his hope in God. He wasn’t perfect. None of us are. But he is with Jesus. He is whole and healed.💚
For those of you who pray, I covet your prayers for those of us who knew him and loved him —especially for my mom who has lost her husband. My heart is broken for her as she grieves and knows a sort of loss I’ve never known.💚
9/4/2020
Shared by Becky Rogers: A quote from Nicholas Sparks’ book Every Breath, “One of the great things about a leaf is that it reminds you to live as well as you can for as long as you can, until it’s finally time to let go and allow yourself to drift away with grace.” Her friend she said,Dallas Smalley, did that recently. She said she has written it in her Bible to remember. I like that image. It seems to me that’s what Bill did, too.
9/6/2020
My Daughter in Love, Joni Byrd, had written the blog below when she was working on her counseling degree in May 2014. I came across it today while looking for something in some archives of mine. I am very grateful that Bill lived his life daily with his soul at peace, having his heart’s work done day by day, so that when time came to say goodbye, there was no unfinished business on his part. Nothing he had to hang on for or feel regret about…… We both were able to accept God’s will….. though it meant our own hearts’ desires might be undone for the moment for God’s to be fulfilled.
Saying Goodbye with Grace
I am studying for a degree in counseling, and in a textbook, I recently read a statement about hospice care that really caught my attention. The book stated that it is often during the last days, hours, or even minutes of a person’s life “that lifelong problems are resolved.” This may not be surprising to us, as we have been conditioned to scenes in movies and books of people’s dying professions of love and forgiveness and final words. I will tell you, though…that this is true of many people’s experiences just breaks my heart. If lifelong problems are left unresolved until a person’s final moments, it means those burdens were dragged by the person throughout their whole life, without healing or being free of them. This brings tears to my eyes! Think of the missed opportunities for joy, peace, forgiveness, and love. It shows me the importance of living in a way so that our families and friends have no doubt that they are loved; to live so that we do not harbor unresolved arguments or grudges. As Romans 12:18 tells us, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” This encourages me to forgive, speak authentically, and live at peace, knowing that the important things will have been said. It especially shows me the importance of sharing the Gospel with all those whom I love, because oh, what an awful thing if we were to leave the true message of hope unsaid! Not everyone has an opportunity to share final words and thoughts with loved ones. That in and of itself is a gift, and one over which we have no control–Psalm 139:16 says, “all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.” Every day, we have the God-given choice to live so that when our time here is ending, our only need is to smile at our family and loved ones, say, “Goodbye, I love you,” and, “See you soon!” May we not miss our opportunities to live in such a way that our burdens will be light as we walk toward home. Amen.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” Galatians 5:22-25
–Joni Byrd
9/14/2020
For a skinny minute, as I reflected on my day, I thought I had confined my tears to those few minutes right after I woke up and now just before I turn in…. and then I remembered I cried when I talked to the supplemental health insurance company for the third time in two weeks trying to get the straight and skinny on when they would stop deducting Bill’s premium from the bank account and send a refund and I cried when I had to call my son to straighten out a computer issue for me this afternoon. I’m still in a state of being right at the top edge of “whelmed.” There does not seem to be much margin available to work through the simplest of challenges. A reservoir of barely-contained grief just sloshes out over the rim with the least little bit of rattling or bumping some days. Not every day…… but some days.
9/16/2020
I have observed many mornings that I awaken at exactly the same time and in the sweet little numeric signature language that God and I have it means “we begin a new day together” or “going forward together”. I had to go to Hobby Lobby to get something for Bill’s Celebration service and this little block jumped out at me. It just fit perfectly on a little ledge in my bath by a nightlight I can see from my bed. It is the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing at night. This morning the Lord gave me the sweetest vision when I awoke of Bill sitting right next to him as my first waking thought was of Christ and then Bill, the two of them sitting side by side, waiting for me to awaken and lift my morning prayer. Jesus was saying, “Watch, her first thought will be of me, then of you. We are all three bound together in eternity.” It brought the sweetest tears of joy to my eyes! Several people have texted or messaged to remind me I am loved. I feel it. I know it. God reminds me of it daily!
