A Tribute to Tyler

At our annual staff retreat, COG staff honored our dear friend and colleague, Tyler Schroeder. He is deeply missed by all of us at the COG as well as by all of the kids and families he supported throughout his career. Nancy read a special tribute to Tyler and afterword we released several butterflies to remember how honored we were to know and work with such an exceptional person as Tyler.

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Our purpose today is multifaceted.  Primarily we are here to celebrate the life, accomplishments and contributions of our friend, Tyler. However, we also gather to promote our own healing.  The loss of Tyler caused a range of emotions for each of us.  Initially there was shock, emptiness, and profound sadness.  For some this was followed by confusion, doubt and disbelief caused by the realization that this really can happen to our family, group or community.  Our sense of safety and security became fragile, and we no longer feel quite at home in our world – things just don’t feel right.  Eventually we will begin to put all the jagged pieces of our understanding back together.

We will never understand “the why” of Tyler’s death but we will come to a sense of peace regarding our lack of understanding and we will be nearing the end of our process of healing.  As we do we learn to release, rather than stubbornly hold on to the past, and to move forward allowing all that he gave us to grow and mature.  In order to continue his legacy, we must let go. 

As we close this celebration, I would like to share a poem with you.

A Symbol of Hope

A butterfly lights beside us like a sunbeam

And for a brief moment its glory and beauty belong to our world

But then it flies again
And though we wish it could have stayed…
We feel lucky to have seen it.