I added a few more stories but I read most of the following tribute at Daddy's funeral...I believe it paints an accurate picture of Daddy's legacy.
 |
| My Daddy: Jim T Gillis |
Daddy was equal parts outlaw and saint, grizzly bear
and teddy bear, generous to a fault, ornery as the day is long, and 100% pure
gold. My mental picture of my Daddy is
of him picking on me about something with that little crooked, smirky grin and
a twinkle in his eye. And oh, how Daddy
loved to pick! He started training early
with Aunt Donna and perfected his skill on his granddaughters, nieces, and
poor, unsuspecting waitresses. Remember
how he used to tease Aunt Donna, saying, “I’d rather be dead than red on the
head!” Aunt Donna, if you’d only known
that one day you’d be able to say, “I’d rather be red on the head than bald on
the head!”
Oh, Daddy’s bald head! He blamed that on me, of course. For some reason, as a child, I took great
delight in standing behind his seat in the car and rubbing that little bald
head…he says I rubbed all the hair off.
And remember that crazy comb over?
We begged him to just cut that off and be done with it. When he would take off his ever present cap
to pray over his food that thing would just stand up and salute the entire
restaurant as if it were the guest of honor.
Whoever finally convinced him to cut it off, thank you. It created the perfect, kissable spot. I can still hear him ask me if I brought a
towel.
If you would humor me for a few minutes this afternoon,
I’d like to share some of our most favorite memories of Daddy.
One time he had a date at 7pm. At 9pm Granny asked him about it. Yes, he had a date and he was going right
then. Granny told him that if she (his
date) had been her daughter he wouldn’t be picking her up at 9pm. His response was “Oh it don’t make no
difference she’ll be waiting for me when I get there.” And after seeing
pictures of him at that age, I have no doubt she was doing just that.
When Daddy was very small, Papaw set out to teach him to remember to say, "Yes sir!" So he took Daddy into the bathroom and had him stand on one leg and repeat, "Yes sir!" over and over again. Then switch to the other leg and repeat. After doing this for a while, Papaw asked, "Now, do you think you can remember to say, "Yes sir?" Daddy happily replied, "Yep!"
One time daddy was trying to start a fire. He had Linda hold the funnel because he was
going to pour some oil down the funnel to help the fire along. Something went wrong and the fire came back
up the hose and through the funnel and burnt all the hair off Linda’s
face. Her face was solid black and
smoking from the black soot. Linda
learned her lesson to never hold anything for him again.
All us kids, Linda and daddy went on a drive thru
safari. We went in a white pickup called
“the white elephant”. It broke down in
the middle of the zebras. Daddy would
get out and try to fix the truck and then the zebras would come and chase him
to the back of the truck. He would wait
until they left and then work on the truck some more. Then they would come back and chase him again
and he would jump in the back of the truck again and wait till they left
again. Then it broke down again in the
middle of the ostriches. There was
always something wrong with our vehicles.
Shannon recalled going on a trip with Daddy taking a
load through some mountains. As they
were coming off the mountain, a brake line came loose. Shannon had been asleep in the sleeper when
he heard Daddy on the CB saying, “Clear the way I’m coming down fast with no
brakes!” Shannon asked, “What’s going
on??” Daddy replied, “Nothing! Get back in the sleeper and go to sleep!” Incredibly, he did get it down the mountain and stopped. He re-attached the brake line and they continued on their merry way. Nobody could drive like my Daddy.
Daddy had a unique way of dealing with partying
teenagers. One time Tina and a friend
went partying and Daddy made them dig a septic hole and lateral lines on about
3-5 acres.
His chair.
Not just a chair, but HIS chair.
How many of you guys have “a chair”? And pity the fool that carelessly
settled his backside into Daddy’s chair.
It was not public property. If a
man’s home is his castle, then Daddy’s chair was certainly his throne. And no, you may NOT have the remote.
Daddy's CB handle was "Midnight Special". Once, as a child, Shannon was trying to reach him on the CB. In his sweet, little boy voice he put the call out, "Hey Midnight Special, you got your ears on?" After a few seconds, a voice came back over the speaker, "I don't know who you're trying to call, but if you'll meet me down at the truck stop tonight we'll have a midnight special!" It was a long time before Shannon used the CB to call Daddy again!
As far as material things, Daddy really didn't have much that was his own, personal possession. Things just weren't that important to him. However, he did seem to collect one thing: strays. Stray animals, stray people, stray hearts...Daddy was tender hearted and would take in any helpless being. He couldn't stand to see something or someone suffer if he could help in any way. Over the years, his collection of animals and sometimes people became legendary...if you didn't want it, take it to Jim! He'll take care of it!
When Hurricane Rita came through Texas, Daddy was really worried about my husband and me. He called and checked on us several times and then called and said, "I'm coming to see you and I've got a generator for you!" He drove 8 hours one way, dropped it off, kissed me, told me he loved me, then got back into the truck and drove home that same night. He was always there when I needed him.
One time he and pawpaw were on a trip to Texas and
got pulled over for expired license plates.
He had never had them updated and it had been about 5 years. The officer kept trying to find the vehicle
in the system and could not find it anywhere.
He decided that there was something wrong with the computer and let Daddy go without a ticket…moral of the story…He was the luckiest man alive.
About 12 years ago, Daddy and Linda gave their lives
back to God and today I am more thankful for that than I could ever say. To know that Daddy is OK and that we will see
him again is such a relief to me and to the rest of the family. As King David said, I may not be able to
bring him back here, but I can go to where he is. But in the beginning, I wondered a little bit
about whether or not He was really serious about living for God. At least until he called me one day to make
sure I understood a very important principle of the Word of God: tithes and
offerings. He wanted to make sure that I
was doing what I was supposed to be doing so that I could enjoy the blessings
that he had discovered. For several
minutes, he testified to me about how God was blessing him and his business and
how excited he was about giving back to God and to the Kingdom of God. He shared with me that he had a new goal in
life: to give a million dollars to the church.
I’m not sure that he reached that goal but the church got something even
more precious: him.
As I've walked through this New Life campus for the
past few days, I have fully expected to see Daddy at any time. If his spirit lingers anywhere I believe it’s
here. This church and this church family
were his heart and soul. For
generations, my family has either been in the ministry or they have been a
friend to the ministry and Daddy was no exception. When we would talk on the phone he wasn't really interested in talking about his health, his job, things like that. He wanted to talk about his church and the
things of God. He loved his Pastor,
first Bro. Anderson and then Bro. Dunn.
He was loyal. He was all in. To this church family, I know that you grieve
today just as much as we, his biological family grieve. Thank you for loving and supporting my family
the way you have, not just this week, but for all these years. Thank you for praying for them and believing
in them when they didn't believe in themselves.
Thank you for always honoring my grandparents; it meant so much to Daddy
the way you all have loved them.
One of the last times I talked to him is a very
special memory for me. My husband and I
were dealing with something at the church we pastor and our conversation found
me with heaviness in my spirit. Towards
the end of the conversation, after he had testified about some incredible
miracles that were taking place here, he made this statement: The Good Lord don’t ask my permission He just
does what He’s gonna do, His way. And
that’s OK because it always turns out right and He gets the glory. When he said that to me I felt the Holy Ghost
settle over me and peace began to fill my spirit. My eyes filled with tears and I barely
croaked out a thank you for ministering to me.
Today, that statement means so much more to me than it did then.
I’ll leave you with one final memory. If you knew Daddy for any length of time you
know that punctuality was not his strong suit.
Oh, he would get there, but it most certainly would not be on time. But early Sunday morning, March 24, 2013, for
the first time in his life he was on time…a little early, if you ask me. It’s a bit ironic but we've all spent a lot
of time waiting on him over the years and I guess the Good Lord decided that it wouldn't hurt him a bit to wait on all of us for a change…
.JPG)
I love you, Daddy….I’ll see you in the morning.
