Brandon’s Tribute

I’ve always been proud of my little brother.  I think he is creative, smart, and hilarious to name a few of his many talents.  However, I have never been more proud of my brother than after he spoke at my Mother’s Funeral.  We all said a few words with my sister going first, me second and Brandon last. He truly lived up to the statement “save the best for last” and not only honored my Mother but gave some amazing life advice to live by.  With his permission, I am sharing his speech in honor of my mother’s passing a year ago today(July 3, 2018). She is greatly missed and will be forever remembered.  

 

Good Afternoon,

With my Sister being a cheerleader,  my brother and myself playing football all the way into college,  my mom has seen countless sporting events. She saw so many of my games that one day she told me she queened herself my number one cheerleader.  She also informed me that if she saw me talking to any other cheerleaders then we would have some big problems.

But it wasn’t just sports that my mom was my number one cheerleader,  it was in life. 

There is a saying in sports that some of you may know or have heard and the saying is  “leave it all on the field”. It can be changed to “leave it all on the court” or leave it wherever the game is being played. 

It means: Hold nothing back, put it all on the line. Don’t end the game feeling like you could have given more. Don’t leave the game  feeling like you played it safe when you had the opportunity for something greater. To “leave it all on the field” basically means to give it everything you have and don’t hold anything back. 

You see just about every sporting event has a predetermined amount of time in which it is played.  Whether the game lasts 5 minutes 20 minutes or 2 hours, the goal should always be to give your very best in that amount of time. Because when the game is over, it is too late to change the outcome. 

What a lot of people don’t realize is that our lives are very much like a sporting event.  We all have a predetermined amount of time to play but the major difference in this analogy is that, in our game, God is the official time-keeper, and we do not have the advantage of knowing how much time is left. 

Some of us will be in the game for a long time with no water breaks. While some of us will only play the game for a short amount of time and miss the rest of the season.  It truly doesn’t matter how long you’re in the game. What matters is the impact you make in the amount of time you’re playing it.

If there’s one thing I can confidently say about my Mother it is that 

Lynn Bacchus left EVERYTHING on the field.

Lynn Bacchus left everything she had in life

There is not ONE thing I can think of that my mother did not put 110% into whether it was raising a family,  teaching her students, or doing anything else. 

I mean THIS WOMAN WORKED 

Can I get an AMEN

I know mom is going to be getting the best rest of her life now because she seemingly didn’t rest while she was here.  You can ask my siblings, it literally got to a point with me that I questioned if my mom was a robot. It got so bad at times,  I considered sneaking into her room just to make sure she wasn’t plugged into a wall charging her battery pack. Most people don’t know that the energizer bunny was solely modeled after my mother.

The amount of effort she gave was absolutely unreal. She was the only person I knew that would go to sleep after you,  be up before you, and then work longer and harder than you and still have time to watch “Dancing With the Stars.”

She was truly just a phenomenal woman. 

If there’s anything that we can all learn from her, it’s to give everything and hold nothing back. Unrelentingly feed love into everything that you do, in every interaction, in every step.  And know that even the smallest things can be done with great love.

And that’s what my mom did.  So I would just like to personally thank each and every face in here for showing your love and support for my mother.   You all truly don’t realize the impact it has in dealing with all of this because it all just seems to be happening so fast.  

So thank you all again.