They filled the sanctuary, they filled row upon row of folding chairs in the fellowship hall and stood along the walls, and still the mourners came, gathering by the dozens in the sun-filled courtyard of Trinity Episcopal Church.
Love and grief poured out in equal measure Monday afternoon in Asheville for Greg, Christopher and Phillip Byrd and Jackie Kulzer, killed last week when their small plane went down on I-285 in Atlanta.
Greg Byrd, 53, whose Facebook page is filled with photos of him at beaches and ski resorts, posing with an ear-to-ear grin beside planes, boats and motorcycles, was remembered by his nephew Alexander Demetriou as “filled to the brim with this force we call life.”
The measure of how well his uncle was liked, Demetriou said, was that “at least 15 people” had introduced themselves to him as “Greg’s best friend.”
He was not only adventurous but loving and dependable, his nephew said, “a go-to guy for so many people.”
As for Christopher Byrd, 27, Greg’s son and Demetriou’s cousin, as the oldest child in the extended family, he “knew how to lead by example,” Demetriou said. “He was sturdy and stable, like the mountains that surround this town.”
And he was on his way to establishing his own family, Demetriou noted, with his wedding to Kulzer scheduled for October.
Recalling Kulzer, 27, who lived with Christopher in Atlanta, Demetriou likened her to a self-possessed sprite, tiny, adorable and determined, “Tinkerbell with an accounting book.”
He was especially struck, he said, by her “remarkable female energy,” a quality in short supply in the male-dominated Byrd family. He was sure, he said, that she would have been a “capable and loving mother one day and an integral part of this family.”
Phillip Byrd, he said, was the family’s Huckleberry Finn, “a comet burning from both ends,” equally adept at savoring the beauty of a sunset or “talking his way out of any situation.”
He recalled a time when he and Phillip, 26, shared a couple of beers, sitting in the cab of a truck and talking about family and death. He said Phillip ventured the thought that he might die young, and said he had already experienced so much love that no one should feel bothered if he did.
“I can tell you right now,” Demetriou said, “it’s bothering me and a whole lot of other people.”
In closing, he spoke directly to Christopher and Phillip’s mother, Hope Byrd, and their surviving brother, Robert, telling them they had been “elevated” from his aunt and cousin to his mother and brother.
The Rev. Dr. R. Scott White, rector of Trinity, delivered a homily built on the theme that God became human in the person of Jesus so that he might know fully the nature of human life and human suffering.
That does not keep us from grief or from questioning why terrible things happen, White said. In the face of such devastating loss, it is natural to respond: “It was not supposed to be this way. It just doesn’t make sense.”
But those who suffer, he said, “can find comfort in knowing that God knows exactly what it is like to be us.”
Visible among the hundreds of mourners in the church were uniformed officers of several Asheville area law enforcement agencies, a testament to Greg Byrd’s many years as a Buncombe County deputy sheriff.
Byrd’s plane went down Friday morning shortly after takeoff from DeKalb Peachtree Airport, where he and Phillip had stopped to refuel and pick up Christopher and Jackie. The foursome were on their way to Ole Miss for Robert’s graduation.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
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