Dec. 8, 2023 - April 4, 2024 Whittaker Zadok Garrison was born in Advent, the season of Christ’s coming. What joy he brought to our family, a beautiful blessing to his mother and father, William and Hannah Garrison. His blue eyes and smile have gone away from us for a little while as this world races towards its own end. He left us just after Easter. The cries of the mourning dove wake us each day and now remind us of a mother’s heartfelt groaning. Darling one, Sweetheart, is that you crying? We are here.

Mary’s son lay in the tomb. Every Easter from this day forward, we will know her pain. We will hear the mourning doves, and we will remember our own sweet daughter’s cry.

Whittaker is now in the arms of our Savior. “But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.’” We are a Christian family. God is real. There is a spiritual battle that rages all around us. Death here on earth is not the end. Christ conquered death and gave us eternal life.

We bow our heads in sadness of this fallen world where every sort of evil plagues our friends and neighbors. God sends His rain and sunshine on the good and the bad and reminds us that as Christians we are not immune from the pain and sorrow of this world. Christ walked on this earth as a man of sorrows when He did not have to. He knows our pain.

Whittaker was a perfect gift from God.

“Everything good comes from God. Every perfect gift is from Him. These good gifts come down from the Father who made all the lights in the sky. But God never changes like the shadows from those lights. He is always the same. God decided to give us life through the true message He sent to us. He wanted us to be the most important of all that He created.”

Whittaker, we know, cannot come back to us, but someday we will go to him.

Christ and little Whittaker will welcome into God’s presence one day: His father and mother, William and Hannah Garrison; His Grandparents, Bryon and Destiny Garrison, Jackson C. and Leigh Wilbourn, and Clifford and Rachel Kidd.

His Uncles, David, Bryon Henry, James, and Mikey Garrison, Wyatt, Darby, and Jackson S. Wilbourn, and Colton Lloyd.

His aunts, Abigail Lloyd, Bekah, Sarah, Elizabeth, Magdelyna Wilbourn, Ava Garrison, and so many other family members who claim the name of Jesus Christ.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Whittaker’s surviving extended family includes his Great Grandfather, William D. Garrison, Great Grannie Annie Wilbourn, Great Grandparents Mike and Sue Cross, Great Great Grandmother Anna Cross, Great Great Grandmother Clara Neal.

Great Aunts and Uncles: Adam and Connie Burroughs, Brad and Amanda Winters, James and Carrie Ham, Tex and Kiturah Wilbourn, Scott and Jolene Catchot, Selayne Triplett, Jessica Triplett, and Lance Triplett.

Cousins: Kai, Levi, Nava, and Ian Burroughs, Jonathan, Gideon, and Liberty Ham, and many many more cousins. Whittaker was preceded in death by William’s grandmother Bonnie Garrison, Hannah’s sister Josephine Louise Wilbourn and Hannah’s grandparents Jackson E. Wilbourn and Larry and Nancy Triplett. The Garrison family would like to thank the entire body of believers represented by the Christian congregations of West Texas, especially in Fort Stockton, Alpine, Monahans, and Sanderson Texas. The community is invited to attend the memorial in honor of Whittaker Z. Garrison which will be part of the regular service held on Sunday, April 14, at the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Stockton at 11 a.m. The memorial will continue in the fellowship hall after the service and a lunch will be provided by the Presbyterian Women.

Arrangements are entrusted to Heritage Funeral Home of the Big Bend in Fort Stockton. If you would like to send your condolences to the family, you may do so by signing his guestbook at www.heritagefuneralhomeofthebigbend. com