For Daelyn Brock Godfrey, those details included the sound of a tenor saxophone, thunderstorms flashing across the Georgia sky, Minecraft, climbing trees, baseball, animals, cheeseburgers, and a wardrobe combination he apparently saw no reason to change with the seasons: a hoodie and gym shorts.
Daelyn, a 13-year-old student from Rome, Georgia, died on September 23, 2026.
He was an eighth grader at Rome Middle School, where he participated in the marching band and played tenor saxophone. He was also involved with the youth group at West Rome Baptist Church.
His official obituary paints the portrait of a teenager who was curious, funny, independent and rarely interested in simply following everyone else.
A teenager who found wonder in ordinary things
Daelyn was born in Rome on October 15, 2012, to Matthew and Shannon Godfrey.
Even at 13, he had developed a personality that family members could describe through a remarkably specific collection of interests.
He enjoyed reading.
He played Minecraft.
He liked baseball.
He climbed trees and rocks.
Animals fascinated him.
And thunderstorms held his attention, particularly the lightning.
Those details give his obituary an unusually personal quality. Rather than reducing Daelyn to school, age and family relationships, the remembrance captures the things that actually made him recognizable to those around him.
His curiosity seems to have been one of the strongest threads connecting those interests.
He liked discovering something unfamiliar, testing a new interest and finding his own approach rather than automatically following what everyone else was doing.
That independence became part of how his family described him after his death.
Music gave him another place to belong
At Rome Middle School, Daelyn was part of the marching band.
He played tenor saxophone, adding music to a life already filled with interests.
For a student his age, participation in marching band meant more than learning notes on an instrument. It meant rehearsals, classmates, school events and the shared discipline of producing something as a group.
His place in that program is now part of how the Rome school community remembers him.
The loss of a student reaches far beyond one classroom. It moves through classmates, teachers, coaches, bandmates and families who became accustomed to seeing the same face in hallways, rehearsals and school activities.
For Rome Middle School, Daelyn’s absence now sits inside those ordinary routines.
Humor was one of his signatures
His obituary also remembers Daelyn for something less formal but just as important: he was funny.
He loved a good “dad joke.”
That detail may sound small, but it says a great deal about how someone lived among other people.
Humor creates its own kind of memory.
Long after schedules, grades and school years blur together, people often remember who made them laugh.
Daelyn apparently had that ability.
His family’s remembrance also describes a teenager with his own unmistakable style. Regardless of weather or season, he could often be found wearing a hoodie with gym shorts.
It became enough of a signature that his family has asked people attending his celebration of life to wear their favorite hoodie in his honor.
That request transforms something ordinary into something deeply personal.
Instead of a generic memorial gesture, it asks people to remember Daelyn by showing up in a way that immediately evokes him.
His dog Tillie Mae had a special place in the family
Daelyn’s love of animals was not abstract.
His dog, Tillie Mae, occupied a particularly important place in his life.
According to the family obituary, Daelyn jokingly regarded Tillie Mae as his favorite member of the family.
It is exactly the kind of affectionate family joke that helps make a memorial feel real.
For people who knew him, details like that may carry more emotional weight than formal descriptions ever could.
Faith and friendships were part of his life
Daelyn was a member of West Rome Baptist Church, where he participated in the youth group and spent time with friends.
The church will also serve as the gathering place for his memorial.
That connection means his remembrance will bring together several parts of his world — family, school, faith and friendship — in one place.
His family has also chosen a memorial request rooted in their Christian faith.
Instead of flowers, they are asking people to purchase a Bible and give it to someone who may need the Gospel.
It is a deeply personal choice that reflects the values the family wants associated with Daelyn’s memory.
The family at the center of the loss
Daelyn is survived by his parents, Matthew and Shannon Godfrey, and his sisters, Sterling and Makenley Godfrey.
His surviving grandparents include Lamar and Darlene Godfrey, Ken and Marjorie Howard, and Keith and Maxine Thompson.
His aunt Ashley Howard, extended relatives and friends also survive him.
For them, the loss is not an abstract community tragedy.
It is the absence of a son, brother, grandson, nephew and friend from everyday family life.
Daelyn Godfrey’s cause of death
The official obituary confirms Daelyn’s death but does not disclose a cause.
No accident, illness, medical condition or other circumstance is identified in the funeral-home notice.
That means the correct approach is to leave the cause of death private unless the family later chooses to share more information.
There is no need to fill that silence with speculation.
His obituary already gives far more meaningful information about the person he was.
Rome will gather to celebrate his life
Daelyn’s family will receive friends on Sunday, October 4, 2026, from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. at West Rome Baptist Church.
A Celebration of Life will follow at 6 p.m., with Pastor Jarrod Roberts officiating.
The request that attendees wear hoodies will likely make the gathering visually distinctive.
More importantly, it will give friends and classmates a simple way to participate in remembering someone whose personality had become associated with that everyday piece of clothing.
Remembering Daelyn as he actually was
It is easy for an obituary about a 13-year-old to become defined entirely by the sadness of an early death.
Daelyn’s family remembrance does something different.
It allows him to remain a teenager.
A teenager who liked cheeseburgers.
A teenager who loved thunderstorms.
A teenager who played saxophone.
A teenager who climbed things, played games, loved his dog, made jokes and wore hoodies whether the weather agreed with the choice or not.
Those details matter because they keep the person larger than the loss.
Daelyn Brock Godfrey died at 13, but the story his family has chosen to preserve is not simply about how young he was when he died.
It is about how distinctly he lived while he was here.