For Lloyd

One of my "buddies" died yesterday afternoon. I got to know one of my cousins (actually my dad's cousin) at a family reunion some years ago. Someone decided that way too many years had gone by without an Edwards family reunion. So, everyone in our huge family that started out in the remote areas of Maury County in Tennessee converged on Columbia from several states, and we spent hours just re-connecting.

I found out that I had this really neat cousin who lived in Florida, and for the last few years, we have traded emails over nearly everything. He was a very tender-hearted, patriotic, conservative man with deep love in his heart for God, family and country. I came to love him so much over these last few years, and I am stunned at his death.

Lloyd was 63 years young, and he was "on the go" all the time. He loved to travel a lot, and many of my emails would be answered by automatic messages that he was gone somewhere yet again! This time, there will be no cheery email sent in a few days telling me that he has returned. There will be no more patriotic emails that bring tears to my eyes. There will be no more calls to action on some injustice in our country. This Patriot with a big ol' heart has marched home.

Apparently, he got a vicious and fast-moving cancer related to the bile duct that took him in about 3 weeks. Very few knew of his sickness. I am sure he wanted it that way. He never wanted to be the center of attention.

Yesterday morning, he was in a lot of pain, so Judy, his wife, and three of their kids took him to hospice. They got him settled in and went to get some lunch. When they returned, he had slipped into eternity.

Lloyd was the son of my aunt Rebecca who just passed last fall, just days after my grandfather died. Her death came out of the blue as well, and now it seems so ironic that he was to pass so quickly after her. I pray they are reunited now, with her and his father, dear Uncle Herbert, who passed many years ago.

I was reflecting on his death late last night. I realize that people are born and die every day. As I went about my work yesterday at home, the news was filled with one report after another of lives lost. What does one lone life mean in the grand scheme of things?

Well, for me, Lloyd's death is especially painful because he was one of those souls who genuinely cared about other people. When I had emailed Lloyd about little Aleena, who was at the hospital near death with e coli, Lloyd emailed me back and said, "Hey, I don't want to be a pest, but can you keep me up to date on this one?" As in the sickness with my dad, Lloyd kept up with us and prayed for us until the sick were "out of the woods." Lloyd never gave you the superficial, eyes-glazed-over "I'm praying for you." He really, deeply, cared.

I don't know everything about Lloyd. After all, I somehow managed to miss out on the first 49 years of his life. However, what I knew of him impressed me. He grew up the son of a preacher. He loved his family deeply. The way he cared for his aging mother spoke volumes. He served in the Navy, and his patriotism was ever-obvious. He, like the rest of us, was scratching his head about this election. But the thing that just keeps coming to my mind over and over is the time he took for people.

If I was having a bad spot in my life, I could ask his advice, and he gave it humbly and freely. He always answered every request for prayer or guidance.

He was hysterical! He always made me laugh. Even in times of distress, he kept a stiff upper lip and an optimistic outlook and inspired those around him.

Sometimes in this life, you connect with someone at a level neither of you can explain. I Samuel 18 talks about Jonathan becoming one in spirit with David and loving him as he loved himself. Proverbs 18:24 says that "...there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." If you have ever had one of these relationships with someone, then you know what I am talking about. It is a feeling so rare that you can probably count those people on one hand over a lifetime.

Lloyd was one of those rare souls who leaves his mark on hearts, never to be forgotten. I suspect that he touched many that way. All death brings sadness, but sometimes a death leaves a hole in your heart that will just never be filled. I could say I'll miss him. Somehow, there is no closing for this that does not sound trite. Lloyd so did not deserve trite.


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