Mikel L. Breland, 68, of Purvis, passed away on Saturday, February 29, 2020, at Merit Health Wesley Hospital in Hattiesburg. Graveside services will be 3:00 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, 2020, at Fairley Cemetery.
He graduated from Stone High School, Wiggins, MS. in May of 1969. He worked for Mississippi Power Company as well as Asplundh Tree Company, before starting his own tree trimming and removal business where he served surrounding communities for 35 years.
He took most pride in the family that he made and he always made everyone aware of how special his wife, children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren were to him.
He never met a stranger and he treated everyone with love and compassion. He was the most selfless man and we want him to be remembered for his huge warm smile and his kind and giving heart.
He is remembered by his loving wife of 41 years, Jo Ellen Breland of Purvis; a son, Joshua (Laura) Breland of Lumberton; four daughters, Shannon Breland of Laurel, Janet Michelle (Clayton) Griffith of Purvis, Jinger Gipson of Purvis, Jessica (Matthew) Rogers of Monticello; his mother, Bertha Taylor of Perkinston; two brothers, Audie Wilborn and Kent Wilborn, both of Purvis; a sister, Benita (Loren) Lyman of Wiggins; nineteen grandchildren, Lorie, Kimberly, and John Michael Roberts, Skylar Brown, Wyatt Johnson, Alyssa Thornhill, Kylei, Blake, and Konner Gipson, Rylyn Hartfield, Damon Morgan, Anna Jo, Mikel, and Cali Breland, Matthew Abercrombie, Melanie Claire, Micah, Mate, and Madd Rogers; and one great-grandchild, Aliviaynn Hill.
When Great Trees Fall
Maya Angelou
When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants slumber after safety.When great trees fall in forests, small things recoil into silence, their senses eroded beyond fear.When great souls die, the air around us become slight, rare, sterile.We breathe, briefly.Our eyes, briefly, see with a hurtful clarity.Our memory, suddenly sharpened, examines, gnaws on kind words unsaid, promised walks never taken.Great souls die and our reality, bound to them, takes leave of us.Our souls, dependent upon the irnurture, now shrink, wizened. Our minds, formed and informed by their radiance, fall away.We are not so much maddened as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of dark, cold caves. And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration.Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us.They existed. They existed.We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.
