Family Honors Son's Memory By Delivering 'Timmy Bears' To Children In Crisis

Caption: Timmy Byrne as a Hometown Little Leaguer (top left); his last school picture at age 11 before he died (bottom left); and a happy little girl with her ‘Timmy Bear.’

Eighteen years after her young son was struck and killed by a car crossing Southwest Highway, a grieving Hometown mom has learned to live with a dagger in her heart.

“Grief is a hard thing,” said Sue Byrne. “It hits you at weird times but you get through it, but I never stopped trying to get over it.”

The evening of Feb. 28, 1997, her son, Timmy, the youngest of her four children, was struck by a 19-year-old driver making a right turn out of the Hometown Plaza on to Southwest Highway. The 11-year-old boy suffered severe brain damage and was declared brain dead a few days later at Advocate Children’s Hospital-Oak Lawn.

It was the first time that Byrne and her husband, Gary, had allowed Timmy to walk after dark without supervision. He and his friends were walking to the Break-A-Way Skate Center in Oak Lawn, which had just opened a week before.

“My husband and I heard the sirens. He said something happened to Timmy. He just knew,” Byrne recalled. “We were putting on our coats to run down there when the phone rang and a friend told me that Timmy had been hit by a car.”

When Sue and Gary Byrne arrived at the corner of Keeler and Southwest Highway, they saw their son beneath the car.

“He never came too. He was hit on a Friday and died on a Sunday,” she said. “There were a lot of kids there and they were all hysterical. I felt bad for those kids.”

Over the years Byrne knew that she wanted to do something to honor her son’s memory, but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“When your child dies you physically have a broken heart. Your heart aches,” Byrne said. “But then something knocks the scab off.”

With the 30th anniversary of son’s birthday approaching, Byrne knew that it was time. She and her daughters, Staci and Tiffany, organized Timmy’s Angels, which sends stuffed bears called “Timmy Bears” to children experiencing trauma, injury or illness.

“Thanks to social media, Timmy’s name is known all over the country. The bears just took off,” Byrne said. “When we first started out, we gave bears to the Hometown police and fire department to take with them on calls. We’ve sent bears from California to Boston.”

The Timmy Bears are specially designed and purchased from a supplier that Byrne and her husband use for their seasonal pop-up toy business, Just For Fun Novelties.

“The bears are real soft and cuddly,” she said. “This is our way of paying it forward. Timmy did the ultimate paying-it-forward when his organs were donated to three people when he died.”

Each month, Byrne and her daughters distribute 30 Timmy Bears to Ronald McDonald House near Advocate Children’s Hospital-Oak Lawn, as well as fulfilling requests from around the country.

This Wednesday, June 10, Timmy’s 30th birthday, the Byrne family is holding a fundraiser in his memory at Pizza Plus, 4102 Southwest Highway, located in Hometown Plaza. From 4 to 8 p.m., Pizza Plus will donate 10 percent of food orders to Timmy’s Angels, to expand the Timmy Bear distribution.

The group will also be raffling off Bulls and Hawks jerseys, Cubs tickets, and gift certificates to area businesses and restaurants.

Byrne doesn’t know what her son would be doing today had he lived to 30. She is still close to his childhood friends, now married with families of their own, many of whom became teachers.

“He loved to sing and dance. He was a real funny kid. He loved basketball and baseball. He was little but fast,” Byrne said. “To us, he will always be 11.”

For more information visit the Timmy’s Angels Facebook page.