When the Mississippi Braves played their season opener a few weeks ago, their biggest fan was missing from the stands. Randy Byrd had been a baseball fan, and particularly an Atlanta Braves fan, his entire life. He loved them in the good times and in the bad. Randy passed away after a difficult battle with cancer earlier this year on April 1 and because of his undying devotion to the Braves, he was honored at the first M-Braves home game. He truly was their biggest fan. He was present at many homes games, and he even traveled to some of their away games. He loved them and they loved him. The biggest love in his life, though, was his wife Brandy.

“When my sister and I were planning my wedding to Randy we never imagined that we’d be planning his funeral just ten short years later,” says Brandy. Randy died just one month and one day shy of their 10th anniversary. Their wedding vows included the familiar “in good times and bad and in sickness and in health, until death do us part” phrase that the couple lived out to the very end. Randy was only 54 years old.

Randy and Brandy met on a blind date and she liked him right away. “He was really funny,” Brandy says, “and I loved that.” In 2016, there was nothing funny about the turn their young lives were about to take. Serious headaches that were becoming more frequent led Randy to a series of tests that confirmed that he had spots on his brain. “Being a healthcare professional, I’ve been in hospitals and around patients my entire career, but when the person you love the most is diagnosed with brain cancer, it’s completely different,” Brandy continues. Brandy is a respiratory therapist at St. Dominic Hospital.

For two years, Randy fought hard and did great. He proved over and over that he was not going to let this cancer stop him. In October of 2018 while on a trip to the Coast, his back started hurting and the scans revealed another spot. During the course of this horrible disease, Randy missed a total of ONE day of work at his job as a computer operator at Trustmark Bank. This is especially extraordinary because not only did he have cancer on his brain, but he had also been diagnosed with a second cancer that was unrelated to the brain cancer. Stamina like this is unusual for anybody in just about any life circumstance, but Randy’s true character was brought out as he was able to fight much longer than most.

Brandy is thankful for the extended time that she had with her husband and credits God as well as Randy’s physicians, Dr. Bobby Graham and Dr. Eric Balfour, for the incredibly high level of care, compassion, and support that they received throughout their entire journey.

THE LOVE OF THE GAME

When asked how to describe Randy, Brand simply says, “He’s the nicest person in the world; he was hard-working and committed. He loved baseball and was even able to teach me the game and make me love it, too.”

“We were saving up for M-Braves season tickets this year because we were optimistic that Randy would be able to go. He knew every player, and he particularly liked Kyle Wright. When we were having a bad night on the mound, Randy would turn to me and say ‘they need to put Kyle in.’ I’d sometimes get a text at work from him that would say ‘Kyle’s pitching tonight, let’s go to the game!’. His excitement and enthusiasm were a part of his personality and character. Everybody loved that.”

Three weeks before Randy died, he was moved to Hospice Ministries, in Ridgeland, Mississippi. “I knew that would be our last home together, and that’s what Hospice Ministries did – they loved on us and treated us like family. I didn’t want him to be scared and they worked with me to make him happy and comfortable in those last days. Everyone knew to follow the smell of chocolate if they were looking for Randy’s room because there was never a shortage of Twix bars on his bed. Hospice Ministries believes that every moment counts and when they found out about his love for the Braves and baseball, the nurses and social workers coordinated some very special moments for him. During his stay, the M-Braves staff came to visit and brought us hats and shirts and the starting line-up for the season. I’ll remember that for the rest of my life.”

In Randy’s last days, while at Hospice Ministries, he received a very special phone call from Kyle Wright, who is now a pitcher for the Atlanta Braves in the Major League. Knowing that Randy was his biggest fan, Kyle called to tell him he’d be starting in the Sunday night game and asked him to watch him if he could and that he’d be thinking about him. Brandy says that the smile on his face when she told him that Kyle Wright was on the phone for him was priceless. In one of his most difficult days on earth, he was able to smile. One of the Hospice Ministries team members was able to capture the phone call on video at Brandy’s request.

Although Randy did not want to leave Brandy, he was spiritually ready to move from this life to the next and Brandy knows that she’ll be with him again one day. She was able to stay with him and spend quality time with him at Hospice Ministries and she was able to honor a request that Randy had made several years earlier. “He asked me to play the song ‘Gone’ by Montgomery Gentry at his funeral. He wanted people’s last memory of him to be that he was fun and funny, and had a great sense of humor. That’s how he’ll be remembered.”

Brandy tells her story about Randy because she knows that everyone at some point is going to experience the death of a loved one. She specifically requested that in lieu of flowers that donations be made to Hospice Ministries in Ridgeland to honor Randy’s life. “I believe that everyone deserves quality hospice care. The donations that came in for Randy will allow other families to be able to have the same kind of care that we had. It’s a special place. No one wants to think about having to plan for hospice, but it’s something many people will face in their lives.”

Brandy has created a team called “The Byrds” who will be walking in the May 4 A Run to Remember 5K race for runners and walkers. The event will allow people to honor patients and families who have been on a hospice journey and who want to show support for a great cause.

To learn more about Hospice Ministries and about A Run to Remember, visit hospiceministries.org.