A tribute to Odis Brown

I hope Momma Ressa is okay with me doing this but here it goes...

A VERY SPECIAL kind hearted, funny, giving man that brought joy and laughter into a room, even in his final days. This man is extremely special to someone who is very special to me. Her name is Ressa aka Momma Ressa and Odis Brown is the man who could light up her face with a single joke. Odis suffered from lung cancer which then metasized to his brain. Odis was diagnosed and only given 2 years to live. As he loved his life with a toe tag given by his doctor, he still made the best of EVERY SINGLE DAY!! With a smile here and a joke there. My favorite joke of his was when, Patrick, Momma Ressa, Odis and I were at Dixie Kitchen talking about CPR. Momma Ressa said that you can crack someones rib cage when performing CPR. I laughed in a nervous way like that's not true. Momma Ressa says to me, "It's true, I've done it before." In both shock and disbelief both Patrick and I said no u haven't. Odis looks at us both and says "have you seen her arms?", pointing at Momma Ressa. As she turns in shock she laughs and punches him, which he says see my arm is broken now. Haha!! It was great. Plus there was always the joke that when it was time to order food, that he couldn't afford to feed Patrick because he ate too much.

The jokes along with the stories of shooting snakes and being a markersman makes the memory of him so strong and fond in my mind. Quiet honestly, I'm not as funny as he was but I tried to show people the lighter side of my diagnosis. I wanted more people to laugh rather than cry. And some of that attitude came from him. Thank you so much Odis for the joy you brought to us all. I still eat hot sauce on everything ;-)

Miss ya!!