Meeting Lloyd was like taking a journey.  If you visited him at home, he would tell you about the places he's been and ask about the places you're going. 

Our sojourns varied far and wide, from a simple breakfast at home, to travels on the road for him to meet friends he hadn't seen in years.   During the journey he would speak of family and his plans.  Lloyd was always planning.  Perhaps it was the insurance salesman in him that made him always think of the future.  Perhaps it was the Christian he was, thinking of an eternal future that made him such a great insurance salesman.   One thing for certain, he was passionate about both.

Lloyd loved to travel and it seemed wherever he went, there was always food involved.   He knew that breaking bread and sharing food was a means of sharing 'life'.   And naturally, over a meal, you could be sure to hear more of Lloyd's favorite memories from buying tons of jelly-beans for a store he worked at, to the memory of his father telling the bishop, "you're a damned fool."  (Lloyd recalled it being a very rare case that he ever heard his father use language like that).

Lloyd talked about the past as a foundation to the future.   He wanted to ensure there was a stable foundation for the direction we were headed:  the church, his own life (even talking about the opportunity to build a house near his daughter before he died), and for whomever he was with.  Lloyd believed in the life to come that started -not after death- but after accepting Jesus as savior.  He believed new life started now and that was his passion when he spoke to servers at lunch, or people on a visit.   

Lloyd was ever the salesman.  But for those who had the chance to know him later in life as I did, we realized he wasn't selling, so much as he was giving away his most valuable treasure: belief in Jesus as the Christ.   We prayed at every meal at every restaurant.   We prayed for his sons and his daughter.  We prayed for the Church.  We prayed for the family God had given us.  And we prayed for the world with all the brothers and sisters we had never met.  And Lloyd enjoyed doing this at restaurants.

Perhaps he wanted others to see that he knew where he was headed: to live with his Holy Father and his secular father in heaven.  He knew where he was headed, to life eternal.  And he wanted others to contemplate the same. 

Where are you headed?  

Thanks Lloyd.  I'll meet you when my journey's over, and we'll be breaking bread at the greatest feast you and I will ever know.  And we'll be doing it at God's table.   

I'll see you in the morning.

Your brother in Christ,

Shepherd Sean Dougherty