Cody W.

By Cody's mom, Lisa

Cody Wallis

Cody was born 10-13-94 and died 9-26-20. His celebration of life was on his birthday. He was only 25 years old when he died from a heroin/fentanyl overdose.

Cody loved when his birthday came around. It wasn’t always so much for the presents, but he knew he could pick the menu for the day. Breakfast was always what he called a Skillet Scramble which was hash browns, ham, and scrambled eggs with cheese sauce over everything!! Dinner when he was younger was always spaghetti, but as he grew older, he loved chili, meatloaf, and of course venison. His birthday always included cherry salad. He could eat cherry salad for midnight snacks, for breakfast, and finished the rest of the leftovers for lunch. He loved the trifle cake I made for him with layers of cake, pudding, whipped cream, and strawberries. He loved fresh strawberries!!

A quote I think fits Cody well is:  Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain. This was Cody and he actually loved to dance in the rain!!

I remember one day in the Summer when he was about 18 or 19 it started to rain and then it turned into a downpour. Cody wasn’t one to sit still. Finally, he got up, changed into his swimming trunks, and grabbed a bottle of shampoo. He went outside during the downpour and started dancing around and continued to wash his hair. Cody was funny and loved to make people laugh.

Cody loved spending time with his 3 boys, Drake age 8 and twin boys Kingsley and Chandler age 2. He wanted so badly to be able to create a good life with them. He was a hard worker and had so many ideas of what he wanted to do with his life. He talked a lot about how he had started going to church and got baptized. He desperately wanted forgiveness for everything that he had done to hurt his family and himself. I wish he had known that I had forgiven him and the most important thing was to be able to spend time with him and laugh again.

Cody was an old soul and wise beyond his years. He saw into things that others normally wouldn’t notice. He was super observant and a math genius. As a little kid it was normal for him to find money everywhere, we went. We called him Eagle Eyes.

When Cody found a hobby, he was into it 110%. This varied from Pokemon cards, football & baseball cards, raising butterflies from cocoons, picking up garbage in the ditches along highways to clean up the neighborhood, shed hunting, collecting 4 leaf clovers, & Pop Warner football. Cody was on a team that never won a game, but he wasn’t afraid to dive to catch a ball. Cody scored the only points his team made for the entire season.

Cody also loved to work out. A year ago, today I purchased a gym membership for Cody for his birthday. He loved the gym and by the end of December, he was the #1 Workout Warrior at the gym. They even posted it on the wall and Facebook.

The gym was another way to poke fun at his Mom. Cody decided that it would be a good idea to have me try this machine that looks like an inversion table, so basically your feet are in the air and your head is close to the ground. He showed me how to use the machine and he made it look so easy. Well…getting into position on the machine was a chore in itself as he laughed so hard at me. Once I was situated, he said now do a sit up. Well that was just not happening. He helped me down as he continued to laugh uncontrollably.

That was the last good laugh I had with Cody. I really don't know what happened after that. He shut down and quit messaging me. No call for Mother's Day or my birthday. I miss him so much.

These are the times I am going to treasure. Stay Strong Cody and never stop dancing in the rain.

I love you Cody.

Love, Mom