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| M.W. "Buddy" Evans and Bobbie Evans, my dear Daddy in Law and Mother in Law |
"A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death, than the day of birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for this is the end of everyone, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of countenance the heart is made glad. Ecclesiastes 7:1,2
.......He will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces.....This is the Lord for whom we have waited. Isaiah 25:8,9
Dear Praying Friends and Family,
You all have lavished us with the love of our heavenly FATHER during this time of my Daddy in law's passing on to heaven. Thank you so much for you love and prayers and encouraging words to our hearts during our loss. Pop is not dead, he is in the presence of the LORD, more alive than ever, no longer confined to the arthritic body that he wrestled with the last several years of his life, along with mini strokes that he suffered from. He is free from all his pain and suffering and has gone to be with his LORD JESUS whom he trusted as his LORD and SAVIOR and is now doing whatever they do up in heaven, praising the LORD and serving and worshipping HIM. If they have ice cream in heaven, he may be in charge of that...Pop loved ice cream and ate it all the time.
The verses above were sent to Johnny this past week by someone very special, and i thought they really were appropriate for sharing about Pop and his life and his Homegoing...and the homegoing that is facing all of us. My Daddy in law, M. W. "Buddy" Evans, has a good name and this time of his death has just been a reminder to all of us how very dear and special Pop was to so many people and how many lives his life affected.
Like most people my age in our county, i grew up with knowing the name of "Buddy" Evans because he was our Sheriff here for 16 years, and before that he was Coroner for several years. I never met "Pop" until Johnny and I started dating, and it was just like the paper and stuff say about him...he just seemed "larger than life." For some reason he took me to softball practice one day in the patrol car, and i was just in awe. He was always very kind to me...always, and back then he smoked a pipe, and i'm sure that added to his "persona." He quit smoking that pipe when our son became allergic to the smoke, and he did that so John Mac could spend the night with them and John Mac loved spending the night with "Pop and Baba." That's the kind of person Pop and my mother in law both are...always looking out for others, and dying to self to make others more comfortable.
"Buddy" became "Pop" to us when he became a Grandaddy to his first grandchild, Martin. He was so well thought of in our county because he genuinely cared for other people and he lived a life of pouring out his life to help others. One of the men who spoke at the Memorial Service last Saturday morning was an example of the kind of help that Pop gave to people while he was sheriff. This man, who i didn't know, asked my Mother in law if he could share a few words at Pop's funeral when he died. She agreed and what he shared was so touching. This man was in a family of 13 kids, and Pop used to always go by and check on them. What he didn't share at the funeral was that his Daddy abused them physically, and this is why Pop was always checking on them. They didn't have much money, and at CHRISTmas time, Pop came and brought them a car load of toys and canned goods. He said that was the best CHRISTmas they ever had. He said that Buddy continued to check on them and help them through the years, and he wanted to share at his funeral how much that my Daddy in law had meant to him and his family.
Our present Sheriff, Mike Blakely, also shared at the funeral how much Pop had influenced him to run for Sheriff, and what a man of character that my Daddy in law was and told of his courage. Mike said that one time there was a man holed up in a house armed and dangerous, and Mike, a state trooper at the time, was in front of the house, along with the sheriff's deputies. Pop arrived, and told the rest of them to stay put, and he busted in the back door and wrestled the man down. Mike said, Pop was in his pajama's i think, maybe even his house shoes. Everybody laughed at that...but that was a testament to how much Pop valued other's lives to the detriment of his own. He jumped out of bed to go and help out in a dangerous situation and didn't even take time to get dressed.
Mike had vowed he would never run against Pop for Sheriff, but he was already running, when Pop came back from Montgomery, after serving in Gov. Fob James administration, to run for Sheriff. Mike said that was the most fun campaign as he and Buddy often ate together on the campaign trail, and spoke at the same places. Eventually, Mike won that election that year, and he said, Pop came over and hugged him and congratulated him... and knew he would be a good Sheriff, and Mike has been a good Sheriff for even longer than Pop served as Sheriff. By the way, Mike and his wife Debbie were responsible for getting Johnny and i together. Debbie was my softball coach, and Johnny used to come help her coach...he really liked watching my legs is what he tells everyone:).
Br. Fred Lackey who was Pop's pastor at First Baptist Athens, for 25 years, was also a close friend of Pop's and he shared some of his memories of Pop at his memorial service. Back in 1974 was the worst tornadoes we had had in Limestone Co. up until this year. Pop was Sheriff then and it was a terrible night. Pop, was out in the midst of the worst ones down at Lawson Trailer Court where one had come through and destroyed the trailer park. Pop and my husband both, along with Br. Fred and some of the men from First Baptist were down there helping out when a second tornado came through. Pop had called Br. Fred to see if he could bring some men from the church to help. Br. Fred said he thought that was it, that they were really going to die as that second tornado approached. I remember seeing pictures when i was a little girl of Pop and my husband and other men hunkered down in a ditch as the other tornado passed over. Br. Fred told how Pop told them to go and help out in another place where the tornado had hit. When they arrived at the other destination, Br. Fred ended up giving CPR to a man, and mouth to mouth resuscitation and saving a man's life. Br. Fred also "stole" an ambulance...in the midst of all that to get the man to the hospital when the ambulance driver was no where to be found in the midst of the chaos of that fateful night. Br. Fred remembered Buddy Evans had told him to go and help and he was doing what he needed to do to save that man's life.
The memorial service for Pop was the sweetest service and everyone there in the standing room only congregation could have stood on that platform and shared a testimony about how Pop had touched their life for good. We laughed and cried as the stories were told...Mike told about how once he and, my husband, were frog gigging at Sugar Creek and Pop radioed and told them there were tornadoes out. Johnny told Pop it's not bad over here...and Pop said, "I said get home now!" Mike said, that ended their frog gigging trip for that night.
One story that wasn't told that I would have loved to shared, was the time that my husband was in seminary and he had such a burden for his Daddy's salvation. I remember walking in Johnny's study one night in our trailer at seminary and Johnny was crying over a letter he had written to his Daddy, concerned for him knowing JESUS. Some time after that, Pop flew out to Texas by himself, which was very uncharacteristic for Pop to 1) fly and 2) fly by himself to come and see us without my Mother in law. I was in the kitchen and Johnny told me that Pop had something he wanted to tell me. It was then that Pop told me that he had asked JESUS into his heart. After that time, Pop began reading his Bible regularly and i would see it beside his chair often where he had been reading it. He and Baba attended the early morning service at First Baptist when they started that, and Br. Fred said that no one else was happier than Buddy and Bobbie so they could come to church and then go open the restaurant later on.
Pop was larger to life to many and when they were telling all those stories about Pop at his Memorial service it reminded me of the "hero" that was my Daddy in law. I have had the privilege of seeing another side of him for the past 28 years actually, i've been around the family for about 33 years now...and the side i saw of Pop was a man who deeply loved his family and his grandkids were his favorite past time next to "Wheel of Fortune." Pop sure did like watching Vanna! To have the kids and their friends come over and swim at the pool was such a blessing for Pop and Baba both...and later to have the kids just come and hang out when Pop no longer felt like going outside to the pool was very special to Pop. All the grandkids loved to spend time with Pop and that's something i'm very thankful for the time that John Mac and Hannah Beth spent with their granddaddy. I regret that i didn't spend more time with Pop when he was not able to get out much. My dear husband and his brother rotated taking off every other Monday to spend time with their Daddy this year for we all knew that his health was failing. Sometimes Pop felt like going out to eat where he always enjoyed seeing the people of our town whom he had given his all to serve them.
I've included a few newspaper articles that came out in the Athens News Courier, the Decatur Daily and Huntsville times the day after Pop went to heaven to be with JESUS.
http://enewscourier.com/
Pop grew up a poor man, and he had to quit school after the 8th grade to go to work and help his family. Baba said when Pop was Sheriff they would have starved if she hadn't of worked. My Mother in law has always been such a hard worker...in fact she started in the restaurant business, long before Pop did and opened up Catfish Inn back in the early 70's. Pop could not have been the man he was without GOD giving him the wonderful help mate he did in my mother in law who is so very selfless and kept the home fires going while Pop was out taking care of the whole county. That's what they said at his Memorial Service that the whole county was Pop's family, and that's what it looked like when so many people showed up to honor him at his memorial service. This week has been really special receiving cards and thoughts and prayers from so many whose lives Pop touched.
Pastor Edwin, our pastor now at FBC, led the congregation in singing three hymns at Pop's Memorial Service..."The Nail Scarred Hand," "How Great Thou Art," and "Victory in JESUS," while Betty Dean Newman played them on the piano. What a blessing to sing those hymns of praise at Pop's service and lift up our dear LORD and SAVIOR in that old chapel that Baba's Daddy had helped to build before he died at the age of 36. Most of the wooden pews don't have the cushions on them anymore, but that just added to the atmosphere of the old sanctuary. It was a very special service and the LORD was there. The next day, our Minister of Education told me that was the best funeral he believed he had ever been to and i thought the same thing...it was very special indeed. As ever giving himself for others in life, in his death, Pop wanted to donate his body to science so that's what he did...continuing to give himself away to the end. That's why we had a Memorial Service, and afterwards everyone came who could and visited our family in the Family Life Center, where the church prepared a wonderful lunch for us after the visitation.
I think if Pop could share one thing with us from heaven, as he did at the Memorial Service it would be to remind us of "How Great Thou Art," and http://www.youtube.com/watch?
"For GOD so loved the world that HE gave HIS only SON that whosoever believes in HIM shall not perish but have everlasting life." Jn 3:16
Thank you again so very much for each one of your emails, your prayers, and your acts of kindness to us over this past week. Truly we have experienced the grace of GOD during this time "Where Joy and Sorrow Meet," and HE has been faithful to carry and sustain us. We miss Pop very much, but we are thankful that HE is with HIS SAVIOR where he is receiving his eternal reward for a life poured out for others.
Thank you for continuing to remember our family in your prayers....
With all HIS love,
mitzi
