MIDLAND, Texas (Nexstar) — Billy Brock met Ashley at a lake party. Soon, the two would become inseparable.
Ashley would become Mrs. Brock.
“He had the goofiest smile. It could just melt your heart,” Ashley said.
There wasn’t anything about Billy that turned Ashley away. Her husband was the king of corny pickup lines. With his smile, Billy just stole Ashley’s heart.
Together, the couple would raise two kids in Burkburnett: a girl and a boy, now 6 and 8-years-old, respectively. Their son will turn 9-years-old in two weeks.
“He was the epitome of the best father. He embodied every single quality that a great father would have,” Ashley said.
But life as she knew it, fell apart on August 22nd. Billy was the passenger in a car that slammed into a light pole off Andrews Hwy in Midland. The driver was arrested after the man tried to run away.
Billy lost his life before help could arrive.
“I lost all sense of reality,” Ashley recalls. “I collapsed in the doorway and I couldn’t breathe.”
Billy worked in Midland County on an oil rig. He would spend two weeks on the rig, and two weeks at home in Burkburnett. He would have come home on Thursday. His wife says even while Billy was away, he was still the best father and the best husband.
When Billy was away, he would send Ashley TikTok videos that were just the goofiest videos of Billy dancing and messing around.
“That was our language when he was gone on the rig,” Ashley mused. “Just TikToks back-and-forth.”
Billy’s humor showed in so many ways.
“He wasn’t the type of guy who would bring you flowers. He brought me farm animals. He took me to the craft store and said, ‘Go wild!’” Ashley laughed.
Without Billy here anymore, there is still support for his family. On the rigs he worked on, Billy had men he called brothers, who are helping Ashley along right now.
She wants her husband’s legacy to be remembered as a loving father – the thing Billy was most proud of being.
With his son, Billy would work in the backyard, play video games, and he would teach his own son – his dad jokes.
But most important was that special time, whenever Billy returned home from the rig.
“They would just light up. They wouldn’t leave him. They’d wait at the door, sometimes Nerf guns in tow,” Ashley said.
Their daughter, Kennedy, had her dad wrapped around her finger.
“Kennedy was his princess, his everything. He protected her with all his might. He’d let her put makeup on him,” Ashley said.
Billy and his daughter would dance in the kitchen.
“And she says it’s not fair; and she’s right. I don’t know what to tell her,” Ashley said.
His family was everything to Billy. But so were the people that surrounded him throughout life.
“It’s not just me and the kids. His friends, his oilfield brothers, his family, that’s what Billy was about,” Ashley said.
To know him was to love him. Billy will be forever missed.
You can help support Billy’s family by donating to this GoFundMe fundraiser here.