Keith Brandon Drake, 3(almost 4) months old of Lumberton, went to be with our Lord on Wednesday, February 9, 2005 while at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas.
Our little man began to enrich our lives on the day he was born, October 12, 2004. Shortly after being born our sweet baby boy was diagnosed with having a rare heart defect, of which there has only been one other reported case. While his time on this earth may have been short, we will never forget how he touched our lives, how he laughed and smiled. Keith was a good baby and to see him and be with him was to love him. To look at him, one would never know how sick his little heart was and although his heart was sick, he managed to touch so many lives with the abundance of love that his heart could give. Our child went to Texas Children’s Hospital for a routine heart catherization and died twelve hours after the catherization due to complications that arose after the procedure.
Keith is survived by his loving parents, Karen Lowery Drake and William Drake; the best big sister in the whole world, Katelynn Drake; his grandparents, Howard and Linda Lowery of Nederland and Ronald and Freda Roach of Lumberton; his great grandmothers, Vivian Harrell of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Lessie Lowery of Century, Florida; his aunts and uncles, Maria and Greg Necastro of Frisco, Texas, Shari and Kenny Coatney of Thayer, Kansas, Tammy and Dave Bibler of Fredonia, Kansas, Danny and Sandy DeWitt of Webb City, Missouri; and as well as numerous cousins.
Funeral services will be 1:00 p.m. Saturday, February 12, 2005 at Cornerstone Nazarene Church, Beaumont under the direction of Broussard’s, 1605 North Major Drive. A gathering of family and friends will be Friday evening from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.at the mortuary.
The family wishes to thank their family and friends for their prayers, kind words, encouragement and help during the past four months. They would also like to thank their respective employers for giving them the time off that was needed to contend with Keith’s condition. The mother would especially like to thank her employer for giving her the time off that she needed so that she could love, hold and enjoy her son as much as possible. The family would like to thank the staff at Texas Children’s Hospital for giving our sweet boy the best care and for never giving up hope.
The family would also especially like to say thanks to God for giving us four glorious months with our little man and making him well enough so that he could come home and we could be a real family.
The family would also like to ask everyone to cherish every day as if it were your last and if you are fortunate to have a child whether sick or well, to love that child and cherish that child. Make sure that you thank God every day for that child because he or she is a gift from God and should be treated as such.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Keith Brandon Drake Memorial Fund c/o Hibernia National Bank, P.O. Box 2751, Beaumont, Texas 77704-9842
