  
Home | About Byron | Donations | Links | Eulogies and Tributes | Gallery | Contact | Guestbook | Music My Homies Funeral As Seen Through My EyesThis is a story about my homies funeral. Byron left us back in October which is one of the most unfortunate events in my life. As far as friends go he was one of the best ive ever had…ever. Like my brother and I were talking about recently he seemed to be one of the few friends whom we can say could carry on an intelligent conversation with, on nearly any subject we could bring up. We were both lucky enough to have spent time with Byron. During his days after high school he moved from Atlanta to Houston where he lived with us in our apartment. I can only tell you that fun was had by all. It was there that Byron really started to work on his comedy with the aid of mine and my brothers one liners he only got funnier and funnier. Well im getting abit off track here reminiscing about old times back to the funeral. I along with my family came from Houston up to Atlanta to be there for Byron, his family, and friends all of which I consider my own. I didn’t go to the viewing only because I wanted to remember Byron for how I remember him and not the shell laying in the box since I have no doubt hes up there hangin with the angels. So the day of the funeral we get ready and don our BYRON IS COOL tshirts provided by the family, which I personally thought was blankin awesome, fight back the tears and head for the church in Queen City where the service was being held. I remember pulling into the parking lot the lump in my throat now the size of Kamalah the Ugandan Warrior… we park and take the kids out and walk inside once inside I see the whole family lined up waiting to enter the main area of the church to be seated it was at that moment when I saw everyone Jackie, Bobby, Stephanie, and Amanda I just knew I could have lay down and died I felt it sink in more in that moment than it ever had before the Kamalah like lump as if it could grow any bigger had just exploded and I felt such sorrow and remorse for everyone feeling all of these feelings… We proceded into the church behind the family and had a seat in the back and listened to the sermons and the singing and the stories of Byron when he was young. After a small intermission before the last viewing I walked outside where Becky and the kids have gone since the kids were being abit noisy and while standing there someone came up to me and said my brother wasn’t holding up too well that I might want to go back inside and check on him which I retorted im sure I will do no good in that department I would likely only make things worse. But I did proceed back inside where I sat down behind the pall bearers isle at the moment I sat down the speakers started bellowing out Chaka Kahns I Feel For You at which I started really crying like nothing else we had had the conversation so many times before with Byron never really thinking I would live to see it but remembering it like it was yesterday him wanting that song played for him. It was kick ass I might add although the tears flowed like rivers from everyone there during that song because everyone had been told the same thing by Byron and everyone thinking like me that we would never see the day where we would have to play that song. After the family and everyone paid their last respects to Byrons open casket. We then proceded to make a long line of cars all painted with the BYRON IS COOL logo on their windows down to the Antioch cemetery where Byron was to be laid to rest. It was by far the longest funeral procession I had ever been in. We listened to the kind words of the preacher at the graveside services and everyone was given a blue or black balloon synonomous with Batmans colors with a paper tag hangin on it stating the obvious that BYRON IS COOL. Upon counting to three everyone yelled BYRON IS COOL and released the balloons it was an awesome sight to see. I felt like up to that point Byron would have thought that this was the coolest thing ever except for the fact that he was gone… but wait it doesn’t stop there. We left the graveside services and made our way to Tracys house where we dropped off the kids so we might come back and hang out with everyone and exchange stories of Byron over a few beers. We hit state line and headed back to Lois’s Store in Antioch where it looked like everyone had started without us. We got out and greeted everyone passing out personal bags of Skittles as we walked through the crowd of friends and family seeing people I hadn’t seen in years. It was one of the coolest moments finding that all of his friends and roomates came all the way from California to see their friend be laid to rest. That is the kind of impression that Byron left on others he made everyone feel like his best friend and everyone was… no doubt about that. Meeting all of these people that I had never met before and feeling like I had known them for all of my life felt really cool and it was all thanks to Byron. It was an especially cool feeling when I was introduced to his friends from cali Kevin and Jeff and one of the first things of of their mouth was oh so your Nick we all feel like weve known you forever all of the stories we would all sit up late at night and listen to Byron tell. So we all sat and or stood outside for quite sometime exchanging stories, reminiscing, and toasting with a half gallon of Byrons staple Canadian Hunter our fallen homie. I saw someone pointing up to the sky and then I saw others looking up so I found myself looking up too not knowing what I was looking at and never figured out what the hell everyone was looking at until it happened again when I saw someone else point again so I found myself looking up again when I saw it… a bright blue star streaking across the sky. That night I saw not one but 4 shooting stars which I figured must be what everyone all night had been pointing at. I knew this was Byron telling us goodbye and thanks for the awesome send off and all the nice things that everyone was saying about him. So I said my goodbyes to Byron as the last one I saw went streaking by. We all proceeded inside the store to see the long awaited reunion of Burial Ground or Insinuwait or whomever you want to call em which was just totally kick ass even though Craig fell down more times than he stood up. They pegged it right on. One of my cooler remberences of this night was when I went outside for one of the last times to use the restroom when I saw Kevin from California laying on the ground next to his car asleep. I went over to help him up and he told me that he had been looking for his glasses and must have fallen asleep. I told my wife if this happens to at least one person at my funeral I will be a happy dead man. It was just like Byron would have wanted it to be. Sure there was a lot of crying but the laughter by far outweighed the crying. Everyone finally went their separate ways. The next day we went to Matt and Amandas house and while standing outside I said I wish I had painted BYRON IS COOL on our window so Stephanie busted out a window marker and Mike drew the Batman logo with BYRON IS COOL in it. That drawing stayed on our window until two days after his birthday in February I kept saying that we wouldn’t take it off until we had cruised his old stomping grounds of lower Westheimer in Houston. So we did that in like December and a funny thing happened a car kept driving in my blindspot in the next lane I kept trying to lose him for over a mile or two when I finally realized that the guy had a camera phone hanging out his window and was trying to take a picture of our BYRON IS COOL logo. So the deed had been done and we had gotten the word out to the people he had touched there as well… we cruised his old apartment building honking our horn as we went. We hit his old bars Emos and Lolas honking as we drove away. So then we decided to go ahead and wait until after his birthday to erase the window, but the logo will never be erased from our minds. We did party like rockstars for Byrons birthday. Jammin Motley Crue and telling our favorite funny stories about Byron all night next to a campfire in our back yard. There are so many funny stories to tell about Byron from our escapades together throughout life and all of the things we enjoyed and endured together he was truly my brother from another mother. And I will never forget his wit… his humor…his everything. All of this im sure sounds like just total rambling cause it is and that’s ok because I have enjoyed writing and remembering it until the day I see him again. We love you man…
PS. Hey Bryon if your reading this at your local Heaven Internet Bar...
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