Travis J. Bird

My One in a Million

My husband, Travis, was very much the family man. We started dating when I was 17, he was 18. We dated for 5 years, then we married in 1996. We had the dream life. Start dream job, get married, find a home, start a family of our own. Sounds great right… In 1999, our oldest daughter was born with complications, and ended up with special needs. Our words of wisdom to keep us strong were “There is always someone worse off than us, and we can get through this!” For 10 years we did everything with her that we could to make her life as good as possible. We decided to have another child. However, a month before our second child was born, Travis ended up in the hospital with heart problems. This gave our family quite the shock. He found out he had a condition that only allowed his heart to function at 26%. For a guy that is 6’2″ that does not bode well. But like everything else we repeated our words of wisdom “There is always someone worse off than us and we will make it through.” Travis’ health improved with medicine. For 2 years he was doing ok. The doctor asked and asked him to please have a defibrillator installed. He refused. Our 15 year wedding anniversary was on Sept 14, 2011. He posted the most beautiful anniversary song and words that made my heart melt. 9 days later… My love went to be with the Lord. Travis loved his family, his friends, fast cars, and good food. He had the most gracious heart and would never say “no”. He was a Chicago Blackhawks fan to the bone. We lived and breathed hockey. He was even determined that our 2 year old daughter was going to somehow play. 🙂 We miss him dearly. I hope the woman from Frankfort, IL that received his gift is well. God Bless.