Mr. Tilley

Lucille and Gene Tilley pictured here with my parents.

Do you have any long time family friends, those types of friends who gave you gifts...such as birthday presents, graduation gifts, bridal showers, baby showers and then blessed your kids with kindness? These words describes Gene and Lucille Tilley. Let me reflect on the Tilleys.

My memories of the Tilley family is when we would go over to their house and he would cook out on the grill, or the times I would recite my Bible Memory Association Bible verses to Mrs. Tilley. Yes, she will always be "Mrs. Tilley" to me. I remember, I got to borrow one of her kid's dolls. It was quite a unique doll. It was a "sick doll" where you could put a sling on the arm, or cast on the leg with crutches or even dots to make chickenpox. It was one of my favorite dolls. For birthday celebrations, my mom would borrow 4 small tiered cake pans from Mrs. Tilley to create a "mini-wedding type" cake for my birthdays back when I was in elementary school.

The Tilleys gave us their old living room furniture when Glenn and I were first married 30 years ago. They also blessed us with their upright piano that we cared for during 1 furlough allowing the kids to play and take piano lessons.

And the Tilleys gave me bridal showers and baby showers too. They've always blessed our family with their prayers for our family over the years.

The day after Christmas we got word that Mr. Tilley died. He was 93 years and was married to Mrs. Tilley for 69 years. He served in WW2 and worked for many years for the Goodyear company (that has the blimp). That's how I knew what company he worked for. He was an avid Aggie! Gig ' em! Our prayers go out to Mrs. Tilley and her family. Mr. Tilley will be deeply missed. He blessed many lives as he has blessed the Marr family.

~J