Private Tommy Timms

Moby, I would like to nominate our father, Tommy Timms, be a part of your "Small Town Hero" club. Daddy loved and raised SIX kids alongside our beautiful mother, Vicky Timms. He truly was the kindest, most loving, and hardest working man I have ever known in my entire 27 years. He worked hard every single day of his life to provide for his family, and he did it without complaint or grimace. Daddy was a Veteran of the United States Army, having served during the Vietnam War! I remember the countless stories he would tell about his time in the war, and about the time he spent Stationed in Germany. Daddy’s stories never got old! He’d always talk about “back in the day” when he was a child; about how he wished that the world could be how it was when he was growing up. There weren’t any cell phones, hardly any power lines, the bathroom was called an “outhouse”, and pickin’ cotton and growing and killing your own food was the way to live!! I loved to sit and listen to him talk about his life and experiences. He was such a wise man, and he was no stranger to hard work, having worked pretty much his entire life. Daddy was more than a hard worker… He was a family man. As I mentioned above, he, alongside our momma, loved and raised SIX crazy kids, myself being “the caboose” of that rowdy train of two boys and four girls. Though I’m sure there were times that we drove him and our momma crazy, neither of them let it show. Oh, we had our share of trouble, but even at our worst, daddy and momma never stopped loving and being there for us. I may sound a bit biased, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a family as close as or more loving than the one I was blessed enough to be given. And I believe that’s because we all witnessed the love that daddy and momma shared for each other. Daddy may have been a stubborn man, but he was always there when momma needed him, no matter what; and vice-versa. We lost daddy on September 12th, 2014; he was 72 years old. Our hearts are breaking, and our spirits have been crushed because a huge piece our hearts died when he took his last breath. Though having lost him hurts beyond all reason, the hardest part, for me, isn’t that he passed away; it was seeing how frail our daddy had become. Hearing him asking… begging to get up out of that hospital bed so he could go sit on the front porch, all of us knowing that his body was too weak to withstand it, and having to say “Daddy, you can’t go outside, the hospice nurse told us you have to stay in bed”; and then seeing that heartbreaking look on his face… a look that is forever seared into my memory; a look of anguish and frustration. It hurt so badly to see the strongest man I have ever known literally waste away. But I had to be strong. I had to be strong for our momma and my siblings, but I had to be strong for daddy, too. We all had to tell daddy that it was OK for him to let go. It was OK for him to go be with Jesus and his other loved ones who’d passed on. It was OK for him to stop fighting because he had fought so hard and so long, but we knew his precious heart and body couldn’t take any more; he was suffering. Congestive Heart Failure had finally won its battle. There is one thing, though, that I can say beyond any shadow of doubt… Daddy had made his peace with those he felt he needed to make peace with, and more important than that, he got his heart right with GOD!!! That alone has given all of us kids, and especially our precious momma, a little peace of mind because we know that we’ll all see daddy again someday, but above that, we know that he isn’t in anymore pain and he’s not suffering. Heck, knowing our daddy (and in the words of our nephew, Blake), daddy’s probably up in Heaven trying to convince GOD to turn the Streets of Gold into Streets of Concrete since he’d worked with concrete for so many years; that’s just the kind of humor daddy had and that’s how we try to remember him! We love and miss him so very much, but we know he’s still with us in spirit and will forever live in our hearts. So, Moby, please allow daddy to be a part of your “Small Town Hero’s” club. It would mean so much to our family and I. It would even mean a lot to daddy. He listened to your show every morning and loved it! Please help us honor his service to our country and keep him and his legacy alive! Rest in Peace: Tommy Lee Timms October 20, 1941 – September 12, 2014 Thank you for taking the time to read our story. Yeah baby, Beverly Johnson

Submitted by: Beverly Johnson