<\/p>\n
A brother to some, a father to many,\r\nButch never thought his call was too small or uncanny.\r\nWith him, you never were alone,\r\nthe comfort he would bring you\r\nmade you feel right at home, \r\nbut you had to stand in line\r\nFor he was always on the phone,\r\nwilling to do errands, loan money, \r\nsing a song or just be a friend.\r\n\r\nButch loved life.\u00a0 My \"Butchie\", \r\nI called him dearly\r\nwhen he came into sight,\r\nand I would cry for hours when he took flight,\r\nbecause he was the only sibling, out of nine,\r\nwho could quell my night terrors with a song or a rhyme.\r\n\r\nWe loved him with our hearts on our sleeves,\r\nno matter what we went through,\r\nhe always reminded us:\r\n\"We our family!\"\r\n\r\nButch was an unpublished, \r\nannotated textbook of accomplishments.\r\nhe was learned in Computer Science, \r\nlanguage, music, arts and crafts,\r\nhe never entered into any field that would not last,\r\nand he loved archeology,\r\nthe study of our past.\r\n\r\nHe could put a whole car together \r\nwith just a few tools,\r\nand he taught me how to read, \r\nbefore I was in school.\r\nButch would challenge our minds;\r\nhe was so funny and so cool! \r\n\r\nMy big brother had so many skills,\r\nand worked so many careers,\r\nthat teachers made him an honorary\r\nstaff member year after year.\r\n\r\nAmazed at his genius, they didn't care \r\nif he had a teacher's Credential,\r\nhis gifts were unquestionable,\r\nand that was essential!\r\nAbout what he was able to accomplish,\r\nthey had no fears!\r\n\r\nHis castle was where he lay his head,\r\nhis children his greatest treasure,\r\nand no one could size-up Butch.\r\nNo scale quite measured the person \r\nwhose very body could\r\nnot contain this quintessential \r\nlover of life, family and friends.\r\n\r\nButch fought valiantly against prejudice,\r\nand medical institutions false diagnosis,\r\nand treatment of black folks,\r\nwith treatments that many times \r\nwere hit and miss solutions,\r\nunfounded delusions of grandeur.\r\n\r\nHe was never unsure,\r\nof his plight and never gave in\r\nto the illnesses that were allowed \r\nto fester without sound treatment,\r\nnor well-tested cure.\r\n\r\nHe too had \"the gift\" of discernment \r\nthroughout his life,\r\ninherently surmising what was fair, \r\nwhat was equal, what was right.\r\nHe took the stage and then, \r\ndropped the Mike!\r\n\r\nCheers to you Butch, my brother, Vernon Elborne Wade, III,\r\nmany people loved you - many people heard,\r\nyour plight for young people,\r\nyour genius with words.\r\n\r\nYou trained pigeons to know you like we did,\r\nFlocking around their BFF,\r\nlike super excited little kids,\r\nJust like you took care of our ducks \r\nwho came to roost in our backyard,\r\nyou had the wisdom to know finding \r\nrefuge in this world is not easy - it's hard!\r\n\r\nBut, to Heaven with you, Butch,\r\nwe always knew you'd get there before we do.\r\nYou're my National Holiday, royalty, and a King,\r\ntried and true,\r\nI believe you knew, too!<\/pre>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
3rd Hour A Tribute To “Butch”, Vernon Elborne Wade, III A brother to some, a father to many, Butch never thought his call was too small or uncanny. With him, you never were alone, the comfort he would bring you made you feel right…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1186,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,2114,1135],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-announcement","category-testimonials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66757"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79844,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66757\/revisions\/79844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}