Contributions to the tribute of Tyrone R. Gilliard

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Thursday, February 22, 2024

I am so sorry for your loss. I sadly hadn’t seen Tyrone since the 80s but I never forgot about him. He was so sweet and we had so much fun. We had a small group who hung out in Oswego on the weekends. The picture attached is one of Ty and our friend Mike. So sorry and sad to hear about this.

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Barb Casper lit a candle

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

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Treva Gilliard uploaded photo(s)

Saturday, April 8, 2023

My brother, me, and my pot belly.

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Treva Gilliard posted a condolence

Saturday, April 8, 2023

My brother was a sensitive loving person. He was willing to help anyone who needed it. He strived to be independent and in that he would often hide his psychological and spiritual pain from us. My mother was the only person he confided in. When my parents passed away he was devastated and isolated himself more than ever. He built his world around his many artistic talents and interests. Music was his first love. He played the bass guitar ever since his high school days. He was stuck in a time capsule listening to many talented rock bands from the 70’s through the 90’s. Without any formal music training he taught himself how to play. He was in a band and would frequently play his bass loudly in his room with an amp. His band would practiced in our basement. Because of his influence we were fans of the same music. The most memorable time I had with him was when we went to a concert together in the early 2000’s. As a child I always had a fondness for my brother. Although I had my own friends I wanted to follow him everywhere. Growing up in the streets and alleys of Minneapolis I considered my brother my hero. I learned to ride my bike and tried my best to keep up with him and his friends. He easily gave me the slip and that was a reason to tell my dad on him. I had a talent for tattling on my brother. I think that is why he saw me as his nemesis. He always said that I reminded him of the petulant character Dee Thomas on the 70’s show “What’s Happening”. In spite of this we had many fond memories from our childhood. Although he considered me to be his nemesis he helped me during a vulnerable time during the pandemic. We would text each other frequently to check up on one another. I would cook during holidays and at times when he had a craving for lasagna . I will cooking for him and having holidays together. It feels surreal not receiving his texts anymore. I find myself checking my phone as a habit only to realize that he has left the earth. Tyrone I am relieved you have found peace and I will see you, mom, and dad again. Spanky will be happy to see you!

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Mike DeHond posted a condolence

Saturday, April 8, 2023

I will smile when I think of you my friend. My condolences to your family. Love you brother DON'T DIE WITH YOUR DEAD. Did you know that when you cry for your dead, you cry for you and not them? You cry because you “lost them”, because you don’t HAVE THEM by your side. You think it all ends in death. And you think they are NOT anymore. So if your dead are gone, where are they?. Yes they have left, or they are now in another place, Is that place better than this?. Yes, definitely that place is better than this; so Why do you suffer for their departure?. When you have finished accepting that they are no longer "NOT here", but they are still in another place even better than this, for there where they are no longer sick, or suffering. Then you'll stop mourning them and you'll get them back in memory so they keep accompanying you with the joy of all that you've lived. If you truly loved them LOVE them AGAIN and this time with greater strength, with greater purity, with greater delivery. Today, there will be no more reproach of any kind. Only LOVE, will be the essence between you, between us, between them. I respect your pain, and the way you express it. I know you cry and you will cry without comfort. But .. Today I say to you: Don't die with your dead. Remember we are only seeing one side of the coin. We are not looking the other way; we are not seeing the wonderful place of light where they stand. What if we start seeing “death” as a Second Birth? Second Birth we ALL will go through. Don't die with your dead, honor them by living your life as they would have wanted you to, let them transcend. And you keep living. Author Unknown

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Jim DiGiovanni posted a condolence

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

I specifically remember meeting Tyrone in September of 1978 in the lunch room in Jr. High School. Both of us 12-year-old boys were excited to talk about the first Star Wars movie that was released the previous summer. We have been friends ever since. We grew up together and often spent the weekends at each other’s homes. As kids, we bonded over a love of science fiction and comic books, and through our discovery of the rock band KISS, we made our way from comic books to Rock & Roll. We dressed up in homemade KISS costumes for Halloween, attended our first concerts together, learned to play our first instruments together, formed our first bands together, and dreamed our adolescent Rock Star dreams together. We attended different high schools but were still close and would see each other often, as well as play in bands together. We drifted apart after I moved to Los Angeles but then reconnected in the late 90s. In 1998, Tyrone spent a week's vacation with us in L.A. I treated him to a Van Halen reunion concert and had a week with him driving around to see all the famous TV and music spots he was so keen on visiting.   Tyrone’s great music passion was the band Van Halen. I now live in Pasadena, within walking distance to where the Van Halen brothers grew up and attended high school. Tye was such a huge Van Halen fan, and I wanted so much for him to visit me in Pasadena. I imagine we could have stood in front of the Van Halen brothers’ modest little house or visited Pasadena High School, where the Van Halen brothers went to school and played high school dances. Generations later, my son attended the same school. High school reminiscing always seemed to be Tye’s happy place. We hadn’t seen each other since 2002 but reconnected a few years ago and spoke often. I had invited him to visit many times, but it was always a ‘maybe next year.' To my chagrin, our conversations almost exclusively revolved around his love of the things we grew up enjoying; superhero movies, pop culture, and the aging rockers he still obsessively followed, never moving beyond those reminiscences. So much of Tyrone’s life is opaque to me, and I suppose now it always will be. Our last conversation was in January. I tried to reach him just weeks before his passing without success. In our conversations, he was always evasive about his health, and I was unaware of his illness. His passing has left a hole in my life where my oldest friend used to be. In nearly every sense, we were brothers. Jim DiGiovanni  Pasadena, California

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Lateamma Lyons uploaded photo(s)

Sunday, April 2, 2023

Our deepest sympathy and prayers goes out to you.

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The family of Tyrone R. Gilliard uploaded a photo

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Tyrone R. Gilliard

1965 - 2023

Graveside Service

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