Bryan A. Phillips

Strong Helping Hands

If you could think it, he could build it. My Dad is Bryan Phillips. He is so brilliant with tools and constructing buildings and homes. I have pictures of my Dad and I doing an addition to our home on Marconi Avenue in Glendale, Arizona. I have drywall on my face and in my hair and my Dad is standing behind me with a big smile on his face. I was fifteen at the time the pictures were taken. I was happy to help the bedroom that I shared with my sister come to life.

We have three sons that admired and shared many good adventures with my Dad. They went through mines, caves, out for donuts and a Coke, and they even built a tree house together in our back yard.

My son, Adam, was adopted by my husband. Adam wanted to keep the name Phillips after his Papa. “It’s not just a name, it’s that he was really close to me as a Papa and I want to be like him when I am older,” Adam says.

Even though you are in heaven, Dad, we feel you with us. It’s only goodbye for now. Until we see each other in paradise.

We love and miss you,

Steven, Amy, Adam, Jacob and Luke Mooney

Bryan Arthur Henry Phillips

A Tribute From:

Lynnita Phillips, sweetheart and wife of 40 years

We have been blessed…

Bryan gave me my first kiss when I was just turning 16. He was a gorgeous young man, and I fell in love easily. We married at 19 and 20, and went on to have four children in five years… He was a great Dad.

Our lives wrapped around each other. He was a carpenter and mechanic… So good with his hands. And he was a mentor to many people – very wise, and a man of few words. If any of us had a problem, Bryan always brought life back to center. He was faithful, strong, beautiful and every bit the man God wanted him to be.

Now we have eight grandchildren… He is Papa to them. We have a wonderful family together. We all love Bryan with all our hearts, and he has left a massive hole that can only be filled by him.

On March 20, 2004, he had a massive heart attack and died, just one week before our daughter’s wedding. His funeral was on Thursday, and the wedding was on Saturday. We planned a huge family reunion, not knowing that we would be saying goodbye to Bryan then, too. Five men got up to share what Bryan meant in their lives. He had shared Jesus with them. He gave them the best gift he possibly could.

We have been blessed by Bryan, and know this is not the final goodbye, but we will see him again in Heaven. So it’s goodbye only for a little while. If you are the fortunate person who received Bryan’s eyes… I think of you often. His eyes were hazel, and usually a little irritated by all the sawdust from his work. I am so glad we could pass on something of him to give you sight! God bless you.

Love always,

Lynn

My heart can sing when I pause to remember,

A heartache here is but a stepping stone.

Along the trail that’s winding always upwards,

This troubled world is not my final home.

But until then my heart will go on singing,

Until then with joy I’ll carry on,

Until the day my eyes behold the city,

Until the day God calls me home.

This weary world with all its toil and struggle

May take its toll of misery and strife

The soul of man is like a waiting falcon…

When it’s released, it’s destined for the skies.

– From “Until Then” by Stuart Hamblen, copyright 1958