I am so overwhelmed by the support and outpouring of love I received from the entire Lynn community in the wake of my wife’s passing.
My heart was overjoyed to see so many people come out and pay their respects at the service at Goodrich Funeral Home.
I want to thank Pastor Anthony Bennett and the Greater Bethlehem Temple Pentecostal Church. I want to personally thank Mayor Thomas M. McGee for his presence and condolences. Thank you to Dr. Mary Dill, principal of the Joseph P. Connery School; Superintendent of Schools Dr. Patrick Tutwiler, and state Rep. Dan Cahill for the time they took to remember Lillian Berry-Rogers.
I also want to thank former City Councilor at-large and Council President Tim Phelan and the Lynn Teachers Association. I wish to also thank the Lynn Water and Sewer Commission for their care and support.
Thank you very much to the staff of English High School where my son Travonne Berry-Rogers coaches and teaches. Thank you to the staff of Thurgood Marshall Middle School where my daughter Shardaye Berry is a teacher’s aide and girls coach.
If there is someone I didn’t remember, I apologize for the oversight.
I have not been the same since my wife fell ill on Oct. 26 before English’s football game. That was just two hours after leaving Connery, where she taught for almost 10 years. She was a teacher in the school system for almost 20 years. My wife ended her journey in the very room — 104 — where she was a first-grader in Connery.
It’s amazing the vivid conversations you recall before a crisis. I told my wife a week before she fell ill that I believed in love because my mother raised me to believe in it. I have seen all the love someone needs when they lose a loved one.
I have given my time to this community when and wherever I can, no questions asked, and my wife gave everything she had and I supported her 100 percent.
My message to teachers is please take care of yourselves. Teachers deserve the best of everything because they give to the children of this community. Caregivers show up in many ways, including as teachers who give constantly and selflessly.
A journey can be challenging but perseverance must fall in place in order for us to move forward. Have a great holiday.