Hello i want to say this is probably one of the hardest things anyone could do! Right about the life of a LOVING, GOD fearing, Family loving, life enjoying, very succesful business man that LOVED JESUS CHRIST first and foremost, family 2nd, with his wife being first, Church and believers 3rd, which included almost everyone that ever met him. Because he was a fair man in business, he was a just man in living his life as a father and a man of God in which he lived according to God's word. He NEVER faultered that I ever knew in my 59 yrs of knowing him. The last 9 of which he and I became more than father and son. He became my BEST FRIEND, spiritual mentor, financial advisor and teacher, and a father that I wish I had cherished in the earlier yrs of my life.

   Bill brooks was a much accomplished man in his life, he accomplished all he set out to do with seemingly no effort in succeding at whatever it was he wanted to do. We have heard the old saying "the midas touch" will pops had it. I gave the short version of my life with him in my testimony but he was much more than that, I will go in to just a few of the things I remember and cherish. I talked about fair and just well at the time this happened to me he was the mayor of our home town!

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      At the time I was 15 and was being a very rebellious son. And i was goin in my pops drug store to steal cash and drugs. Little did I know that he had already known that it was me doing the stealing and he had the town police laying in wait on me when I came in WITH MY OWN key to the store. Well as I locked the door behind me I heard a terrible sound!!! The rack of a pump shotgun!!! And the voice of our policeman say "thats far enough"!!!!! And from there it was to spend the night in a town jail cell. And it was my 16th birthday!!!!! But that mattered little to pops he was goin to teach me a lesson!! So i spent the first nite there all by myself in a jail cell.

      The next morning my Grandfather Brooks heard about it and he summoned the policeman and told him to let me out. Well if you knew H.H.Brooks he was not a man to argue with AND he was the mayors Father so the policeman did as he was told!!! needless to say pops wasn't very happy but i was free. But that just shows he was a VERY just man when it came to right and wrong.

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      As I continued to grow I stayed in a state of rebelliousness as a arrogant selfish young man. And pops continued to love me all the more. Fast forward a few years past a failed marriage to my life as a single man and my time of arrest for the time I just spent 8.5 years incarcerated for my crimes.

     I Had seemimgly straightened out and my shop was at a used car lot for the last 5 years when the owner had a heart attack and sold the property, so I had to find a new place for my shop. So I went to pops and told him of the property I had found and asked for his help. Being the man he was and wanting to help me continue down the "straight path" that I was supposedly on he agreed to help me. So we bought the property and I began building my house and shop. But what I didn't tell him was I was going to start selling drugs, because I wanted him to think I was doin it on my own by continuing to fix cars and supply the amount of money needed to build the shop. Later to find out he was no fool he knew it was physically and  financially impossible to do this. But off to work and crime I went. Well my testimony tells alot of the story but it doesn't tell of how he reacted when I had to call him and inform him that I had been Busted!!! So I waited 2 months before I could ever tell him. Yet I was still talking to him everyday. Living a lie of "everything is ok"!!!!

   Finally I called him and told him I wanted him to come and see the progress on the shop. Well he and mom came down to Little Rock and I picked them up and took them and showed them the progress on the shop. Still not saying anything. And I got my approval and pat on the back of job well done!! By now my heart is in pieces as I didn't want to have to disappoint them. But I told them I would come to the Hotel tonite and we could go eat and talk. So I had a girlfriend go with me so as give me comfort and maybe lesson the blow of anger and  disappointment. As we sat and I finally told him the reason for them coming down, he looked at me with only way to describe would be LOVING DISAPPOINTMENT and said "ok what do we do now"!!!!!!

     Here I was putting all this on him and he still is concerned about how to proceed, no anger no outburst nothing but LOVE and caring of what he needed to do to help.

     Bill Brooks was a man to be looked up to and a man of love and caring concern in any situation he was put in. So we proceeded to move forward in which it ended up me getting indicted by the feds when the state saw we were goin to fight with a high priced lawyer. And I ended up doin my time in Fed prison camp in forrest city ar. Did pops change? NOT AT ALL. My pops came to visit me every 2-3 months for both days of visit which was sat. and sun. from 8 am to 3 pm. for the entire time I was locked up, until his sickness of lung cancer stopped him from coming. In which the time of those yrs he and I became the father and son we should have been for the prior 50 years.

     Bill Brooks was a man of GOD till the day he passed in his home with his family around him. I was still incarcerated at the time due to very uncaring case managers and a warden that refused to let me come to the funeral even though I was in the BOP criteria to be able to go on a weekend furlough. At that time I was extremely upset with God for taking my father and best friend of which I had over the last 8 years newly aquired my relationship with. But be that as it may it was all in God's bigger plan. Of which I ended up attending the memorial service because my pops final words were not to have the service until I was home. Ok lets back up just a little bit. And give you some information about me. I HATED DEATH,  I had only attended 5 funerals in my entire 50 years, 4 grandparents, and my best friend when I 30 years old. It would take me sometimes as long as 5-6 months before I was able to go on with everyday life, without being a total wreck. And I knew pops was BAD sick and at deaths door. So not being able to go to the funeral was kind of a blessing!! I THOUGHT!!! Well I got the phone call he had passed, well I was like, whew I missed that one. (the funeral)  NOT!!!! The next day when I called to check on mom and everyone, mom said "by the way your dad said not to have the memorial service until I got out"!!

       I just looked up and said " well pops I guess you and JESUS are setting there laughing at me and saying we gonna make a man out of him yet!!" This was Dec 9th 2019.  So as time went on mom and I talked, and remember I am still a lil mad at God, Then mom told me something that totally changed my outlook on death and even brought new meaning to ON THE WAY HOME WALK WITH JESUS!!!! She said that pops last words were " I GET TO SEE JESUS"!!! Not I love you, but I GET TO SEE JESUS!!!! I now understand how we as Christians should truly live our lives!! We should LOVE Jesus Christ so much that we look for our going HOME to be with him!! And we should rejoice when a child of God goes home!!! And our WALK WITH JESUS  should be one that was like the life BILL BROOKS lived!!         

       Well I finally got released on May 22nd 2020 to home confinement. And due to covid it was total home confinement, no church, no job, no where except to the Dr. so we had to put the service off until Nov. 14th 2020. And I had to speak at the service of which Jesus led me thru. It was a true blessing to be able to give the final good bye to put BILL BROOKS to rest! there are a few more pictures  that i am posting with this as a memento to him and his love for family, friends, and life. And this ministry is possible only because BILL BROOKS dedicated the last 5.5 years of his life to doing all the secretary work of posting and emailing back and forth for me and all you that thought you were talking to me personally!! Some of which didn't even know I was incarcerated!!! To end this part of the memorial memorial of BILLY FORREST BROOKS as co-founder of ON THE WAY HOME MINISTRIES I want to say how much I loved and thank my pops for being the true MAN OF GOD and the example for me for my entire life and being there for me when no one else was.  

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