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As they joined small groups and mentoring
programs, they didn’t realize how vital those
connections were going to be. They began
having children and raising them alongside
the other couples from their young adult
Sunday school class. Brandye shares that at
one point there were thirteen women in
their church group that were pregnant
simultaneously. This was a pivotal time in
Brandye’s life, and you can tell she’s unsure
how to explain it. “This was when I truly
came into relationship with God,” she
remembers. “I don’t know if I’d say it was a
rededication or what, but I know that’s
when I really met the Lord.”
Their careers were also off to a promising
start. Brandye took a job at the Department
of Education, and Joey had moved into
management at BellSouth. But commuting
to Clinton to drop off her oldest son, Blayze,
with her mother before heading to work in
Jackson was wearying. And when Brandye
became pregnant with their second son,
Bran, she and Joey agreed it was time for her
to scale down to working part-time. She set
her own schedule conducting teacher
training for the Department of Education
and became a representative for Cheer &
Dance apparel. But when their third child
and only daughter, Breyle, was born, they
decided to make adjustments that would
allow Brandye to be home full-time…
something she’d been praying for for years.
Brandye thrived in the business of that
season of life. “I had everything color-coded
for each kid and three-ring binders with lists
and schedules,” she chuckles. “I was such a
control freak, and I just couldn’t sit still.”
Indeed, she filled up every spare minute
volunteering at Pinelake and heading up
various committees and programs at her
children’s schools. She was the mom who
kept her kitchen stocked with children’s
snacks so the neighborhood children would
gravitate to their house to play.
That was life before.
In the summer of 2010, Brandye was
training for the Watermelon Classic run
when she began having regular headaches.
Blaming it on the heat and the fact that her
children were a handful during the summer
months, she began taking Excedrin Migraine
regularly to try to find relief. She’d experienced
migraines off and on during her life
and saw a neurologist once a year to keep
them managed. But as the summer continued,
feeling unwell began to take a toll on her.
Brandye found herself sending the kids
over to the neighbors’ homes to play and
not planning her usual outings. Events she
usually hosted and enjoyed, like the summer
planning meeting for Pinelake’s MOMS
program, she forgot to prepare for. She
missed her yearly neurologist appointment
without ever realizing it and unintentionally
offended friends by behaving in ways they
would not normally expect.
In the meantime, Brandye had been
reading in the book of Luke during her daily
devotional time. A few days before her
August 13th birthday, she wrote the words
“God, increase my faith,” in the margin of
her Bible. There was an upcoming church
mission trip to Africa that several of Brandye’s
friends were going on and that she wanted to
join, but she was nervous about leaving her three
young children. “That’s what I meant when
I wrote that. I wanted Him to increase my faith
enough to make me feel comfortable about
leaving the kids,” she laughs. But He would
answer that prayer in a very different way.
In August, Joey planned a trip to New
Orleans to celebrate Brandye’s birthday. Her
brother, an Ole Miss graduate, and Joey, an
LSU fan, had made a bet on which team
would win when they played that year. And
the couple whose team lost had to babysit
the winning couple’s children for a weekend.
Since LSU was victorious that year, Brandye
and Joey were cashing in on the bet and
planned to drop their children (ages 8, 6,
and 3 at the time) off in Covington with her
brother. But as they were unpacking the
kids’ stuff, Brandye suddenly fainted. When
she recovered, she insisted she felt well
enough to continue with their plans. But it
did force her to share with Joey what had
been going on with her health recently.
While they were alone that weekend,
Joey paid closer attention to Brandye’s
behavior than he was usually able to. And
she didn’t seem like herself to him. Her gait
was off as she walked and she was more tired
than usual, so Joey insisted she see a doctor
when they got home. Brandye was unable to
get in to see her neurologist, Dr. Ruth
Fredericks, on such short notice but she did
agree to go to MEA the Tuesday morning
after they returned. She was hoping for
some relief from her headaches.
The doctor she saw that day at MEA
gave her a shot for pain relief but required
that she get a ride home from the clinic. He
also made a call to get an MRI scheduled for
her as soon as possible. Joey, who was at a
meet-the-teacher event for their daughter’s
preschool program, came to pick her up and
asked Brandye’s mentor from Pinelake,
Susan, to come stay with their daughter. But
just as Joey and Brandye were leaving MEA,
the doctor informed them that the imaging
center had a cancellation and asked if they
could go have the MRI performed right then.
The Boyds headed straight to the center for
the test and afterwards were told they could
return to MEA for the doctor to read the
results to them.
Assuming this was how the process usually
worked, they returned to MEA and were
taken immediately to an exam room. A new
doctor, Dr. Marc Hellrung, came into the
room to meet them, explaining that his
colleague they’d just seen that morning was
gone for the day. Dr. Hellrung began their
conversation by saying, “I’ve been praying
about how to deliver this news to you.” And
then he shocked them by saying Brandye
had a brain tumor encased in a cyst that was
the size of a grapefruit. It needed to be
removed immediately.
Life as they knew it was over. Reeling
from the news, the Boyds asked their doctor
if he would pray for them. And so they were
ushered into their new reality through the
prayers of a complete stranger. Brandye said,
“My mind immediately went to what I’d
written in my Bible days before. I knew this
was God answering that prayer. Joey didn’t
know about that yet, but I felt at peace.”
20 • NOVEMBER 2023