I'm trying to figure out why his passing is affecting me so deeply when I haven't seen or talked to him in over a decade, or more. I wonder if it's because of the brief flutters of my visits with Susie that impacted me in a way I wasn't conscious of at the ages of 15-18 or 19.....
You know how people you've never even met, or even characters on TV show or movie, can affect you deeply? Sometimes you don't realize their impact until they're gone, or the show is over. Timing, you lil trickster, you!
When I think of a person being spiritual, generally, that's a sense, in my mind, of a person who has no real home, but always feels home and makes another feel home when in his/her/their presence. They're a floater, an adventurer, but never lost. That was Bobby Byrd.
Our world lost a spiritual yet rooted man, father, husband, teacher, musician, and poet. Although I didn't experience him as such, he strikes me as an activist. He was a gentle force. I remember him always smiling, even in deep thought. Passionate.
I spent time in their home, Bobby & Lee's, as a high schooler. That Louisville Street home was filled with plants of all sorts, art galore - paintings, pottery, figurines, music. There was always laughter and Spanish, good food, good smells, good people. There was a front porch where no stranger stepped, in a Central El Paso hilly neighborhood nestled 'neath the Austin "A" painted white on the Franklin mountainside. (Go Panthers!) Susie & her husband bought the house next door to that house where she grew up - that's how special the Byrd House was....how close that family is....how tight-knit that community is....you were welcome & didn't want to leave. When I think of what life in El Paso was like when I lived there, the image first in my mind's eye is sitting in Susie's childhood home. THAT is what El Paso is for me.
Susie's 'Poppa Byrd', passed away July 11th. For the last two days, not many minutes have passed where he, Lee, Susie & the boys haven't been on my mind. I've been reading tributes by various authors, friends, family, souls who shared paths with Bobby. I'm reminded how much he liked basketball, baseball and politics. I've never forgotten his love of the border. Yes, that El Paso/Juarez sister cities area, the U.S./Mexico border. He and Lee owned Cinco Puntos Press, an independent publishing company that often printed books in both Spanish and English, subjects often surrounding border issues, border life, written by brilliant wordsmiths on both sides of the border. Through Bobby & his family, I learned that there was more to REAL life outside my military brat bubble life.
As I mentioned, Bobby's a poet. I leave that in the present tense because his love woven in the lives of his descendants & in printed words will never die. Poetry is forever, as he will be.
Rest in Poetry, Mr. Byrd.
Read more about Bobby Byrd here.
Donations can be made to El Paso Zen/Both Sides No Sides.
