That's so great that you attended his funeral Mark. What a way to show support for our community. I had the pleasure about 2 years ago of meeting and chatting with Matthew's mother Judy Shepard. What a lovely woman! She had come to the University of South Florida to speak on behalf of tolerance for gays and minorities. She is a school teacher herself and a good speaker.
One of the more poignant moments was when she described having to tell her younger son and only other child that his big brother was dying. Matt was unconscious and terribly brain damaged. His skull was crushed in so badly from repeated blows that it was not survivable. When she first saw him in the hospital bed he wasn't recognizable to them at first. She said that one of his swollen eye sockets showed a trace of the blue of his eye. She looked at his eye but it showed no sign of life behind it. The doctors told the family that his blood pressure was dropping and that he didn't have much longer. A matter of hours or less.
Judy asked her younger son if he wanted some time to go into the hospital room and say goodbye. He was only about 14. At first he said no. He couldn't do it. As it became obvious that Matt could go at any moment he changed his mind. Judy said that she watched through the window as her younger son very slowly went into the room by himself. Their last private moments together as brothers. This poor young boy who had an older brother and was the baby of the family, would soon be an only child. The heartbreak the whole family endured was immense.
Then of course they had to endure the reverend phelps. He had all these protesters out there at the funeral with pictures of Matthew's face plastered over pictures of red flames saying "BURN IN HELL MATT!" And "GOD HATES FAGS".
What a jerk.
