Bye For Now Bernard

The world has lost a great man and I am deeply saddened. In my field of youth work, I have worked on and off with a man by the name of Bernard Gill for close to 20 years. Bernard's lovely wife, Ruthanne, died about 10 years ago of Breast Cancer and he has been raising his 4 beautiful children with exceptional love and unparalleled standards as a single dad. Last Thursday, April 10, Bernard suddenly passed away at the National Service-Learning Conference(http://www.nylc.org/). I had seen him that day, and led a diversity workshop with his oldest son, Geoffrey who is 19 and on the Youth Advisory Council. Four hours after I left, Bernard died.

Please keep his four children in your prayers, I may not have the spelling or ages correct, but the Lord will know who you are praying about: Geoffrey-19, Vanessa-17, Amira-14, Hellena -12. Bernard was a man of deep faith and solid convictions. His love for the Lord was apparent in all aspects of his life.

Bernard had a brightness about him and a spirit of generosity. He was a fun person to work with and always made me laugh. When I was stressed out, he lightened my mood. When my mom was sick, he was always there to listen. He came to my mom's funeral, and made me laugh when I really needed to laugh. My kids loved him. They always went to his office to chat and play with his toys. When I told my children that Bernard had died, Hezekiah who is 6, said " but Bernard promised me we were going to have a light saber fight next time we visited." What a lovely way to be remembered, Bernard would like that. Hezekiah wants to play Bernard. I hope there are light sabers in heaven.