Editor’s Note: This story is part of the 2024 Gridiron Football Magazine. Copies of the magazine can be picked up at The Daily Leader’s office at 112 E. Monticello Street in downtown Brookhaven.

I’m riding down Highway 550, heading back towards town after leaving Buds and Blooms in the first week of my summer vacation as a teacher.

The sun is shining, and the sky is blue and clear as the daily thunderstorms of July aren’t even a thought in early June.

There is a hill that comes down towards a bridge on the highway and on my right is a sign that tells me I’m on a piece of road that was dedicated years ago to the memory of Peyton Flowers.

That little quarter mile stretch of the highway is one of those beautiful pieces of real estate in southwest Mississippi that we often take for granted. We’ll just drive past a place day after day, not taking a second to realize that natural beauty surrounds us.

As the road goes up the hill and past the campus of Loyd Star Attendance Center, I look over to my left and see the number 42, the number worn by Peyton on the football field when he played linebacker for the Hornets, as it’s still prominently painted in white on the side of the red building that serves as the field house.

About a week later, I’m taking a walk around my neighborhood, listening to music and keeping my head down.

A vehicle passes me, and I look up. On the back glass, there is a faded sticker that has the number 42 inside the Superman logo.

A decade is a long time for a sticker to stay on a windshield. A decade ago, it felt like every other truck in town had that same sticker on its back glass, as the whole of Lincoln County mourned.

This season marks the 10-year anniversary of Peyton Flowers’ last football game on October 31, 2014.

Though he is physically absent from the arms of those who loved him here on earth, the spirit and memory of Peyton Flowers have not faded, just as those three signs all reminded me.

There is something to be said for places like Loyd Star and the closeness that comes from being a community school that serves students in grades K-12. As everyone goes to classes on the same campus and the kids move from the lower grades in one building to the upper school across the way, friends become more like family over the years.

If that’s the case, then Peyton Flowers was the favorite son of nearly everyone he encountered, blood relation or not in the Loyd Star community.

His spark, his spirit, his zest for life. Those are the things that folks from the school would talk about when they remembered Peyton in those early, grief-soaked days.

Let’s first focus on that spunk that Peyton had within him.

You don’t get voted Most Athletic, Most Handsome, Class Favorite and win the annual Possum Bowl Queen Womanless Beauty Pageant by being a wallflower.

In the week between his final football game and his death, news organizations around the state ran stories and updates about Peyton.

Even through a computer screen or newscast or newspaper, you could see the mischief in his eyes as he smiled from his senior pictures.

His younger brother Parker played alongside him at Loyd Star under the direction of then coach Adam Cook. On Cook’s staff that night was current Loyd Star head coach Adam Smith. Both Cook and Smith are dedicated servants in making sure that the memory of Peyton Flowers does not fade away.

As his coaches, they got to daily see the leadership that he possessed. His fire ran uncommonly hot.

Parker says Peyton had life overflowing from him.

“I just remember him running up the side of a tree and cutting a flip when we were kids, like it was nothing,” said Parker. “He was just always trying to have a good time and to go hard at whatever he was doing. Which is why he loved football.”

Parker loved football like his brother, and he was the quarterback for the Hornets as a sophomore during his brother’s senior season.

“It does feel surreal when I think about that night, seeing him leave the field in an ambulance,” said Parker. “Scars heal but the wounds are still there. You know the world isn’t going to stop though and you’re forced to move forward.”

Parker recently took a big step forward in his life, going into active duty with the US Coast Guard. His first assignment was to the Florida Keys. He’s been on boat crews, pulling in rafts of people who’ve set sail in small boats from Cuba.

“I’ve definitely had days where we pulled people out that we knew didn’t have much time left if we’d not found them,” said Parker. “Being able to help people like that gives you a great feeling and sense of accomplishment. I’m really loving it so far.

When you lose someone that you loved too young, you spend time thinking about how their life would have unfolded if they were still here. Sometimes it helps us cope, sometimes it hurts too deeply.

“I’ve spent no telling how many hours thinking about that,” said Parker. “I know he’d have kept playing football for as long as he could, but then I think he would have joined the military. I could always see him being in special forces like the Navy SEALs, he’d just want to be the best of whatever it was.”

There is a great book that I read in college about soldiers in the Vietnam War. It’s called, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. If you’ve read it, then you know O’Brien wrote lists of the things packed away by the soldiers.

You learn the weight of the psychological things they toted through the jungles and rice fields was almost heavier than their overstuffed packs and machine guns.

Parker, his father, mother, brothers, and sisters all carry Peyton around in their hearts in a special place, like they are all soldiers themselves.

What lifts you is knowing that you aren’t carrying that burden alone. So many people are ready even still today to be there beside you, helping with the burden, should you call.

“I learned so much about how much good is in the world by seeing how people treated my family,” said Parker. “You hear people talking about “southern hospitality,” but I can’t imagine being anywhere else in the world and getting loved like we were. Your family, your friends, and your community being there for you is a powerful thing.”

I have some friends I carry with me, and I hope their families know it. Killer, Ashmore, and Cold Case are always somewhere in my heart, ready for me to pull up a memory and smile.

I can’t imagine how many people think about Peyton Flowers and break out in an instant grin. I bet it’s a whole bunch of folks.

I’d already had Peyton on my mind to write about when I saw a mama carrying a heavy load at Loyd Star’s recent team picture day.

Toler Jordan was a freshman at the school and a member of the football team, wearing number 44. He loved his friends, his family, his church, and a good nap.

In January of this year, Toler passed away along with his family members Bubba Jordan and Benjy Jordan.

It was an explosion. The type of thing you could never plan for. Like the best football player on the field going down with an injury that you could never have expected would end in his death.

On a sweltering July day, the 2024 Loyd Star Hornets assembled to hear Mr. Johnny Smith say, “good, good, good,” after he snapped their team pics.

Toler’s mom Samantha was there, she had a beautiful frame with his football headshot from last season along with his red number 44 jersey and action shots from games last year.

His sophomore classmates posed for group pictures as his jersey sat front and center.

I asked Samantha if we could talk and promise to try and not cry in her face because I can be a blubbering mess.

She smiles and says yes, of course, almost like she’s comforting me.

Talk to her for just a second and you can see a mama that’s going through a tough time with a resilient air about here. Don’t even get me started about the power of a mother’s love. I could write another 1,500 words with ease.

The love and pride that she has for her boy radiates off her. And she’s finding strength, being among his buddies, allowing their goofy sophomoric energy to lighten her load for a moment.

She can’t say too much at first, but then starts talking about some of the same things that the Flowers family attests to.

“Everybody has been so great to us, so good you can’t imagine,” said Samantha Britt. “You don’t ever expect to be in a situation like this, but it’s been amazing to see how much people love you.”

I started off wanting to write about Peyton Flowers because it felt like I’d been nudged towards him. I instantly felt a similar nudge when I saw Samantha on picture day.

I’d thought about asking someone else to take the pics as it was my last day of summer vacation, but I’m glad I didn’t.

And I hope that she knows that Toler’s friends will carry him forever just like so many carry Peyton and just like I carry my buddies. Like the friends and family of Bryson Walker, a Loyd Star football alum that is tragically no longer with us, carry him too.

When Parker Flowers and I chatted for about 30 minutes one morning, we would sometimes discuss aspects of his brother and then circle back to a point for more explanation later.

As he talked about the support his family received, he had a little excitement in his voice at one point when he said, “I tell everyone that the best people in the world are from Lincoln County, and I’ll argue with you about it.”

Parker, you’ll get no argument from me.

Cliff Furr is the sports editor at The Daily Leader. He can be reached via email at sports@dailyleader.com