Victim’s widow bids farewell

LITTLE ROCK — Cindy Wise is not ready to leave Arkansas.

But leave she must.

A Salvation Army major and widow of Philip Wise, who was killed in a robbery attempt in North Little Rock on Christmas Eve in front of the couple’s three young children, Cindy Wise has been transferred to another post in northeast South Carolina.

“I will tell you that in my 39 years this is the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do,” she said Sunday, speaking to a group of about 50 during a farewell ceremony in the sanctuary of the Salvation Army’s North Little Rock Corps and Community Center.

Also a Salvation Army major, Philip Wise, 40, was shot and killed in the parking lot behind the center at 1505 W. 18th St. His wife was inside that afternoon, waiting for him.

She said Sunday that she had asked the Salvation Army for permission to stay in North Little Rock. Usually someone in a leadership position like hers moves every three years, she said. She was told no. She would have to go.

She said when she and her husband arrived from their native West Virginia three years ago, they made a list of the things they wanted to accomplish.

“I didn’t get everything done,” she said after the ceremony. “There’s more on the list.”

She said she could handle leaving before the trial begins for the man accused of killing her husband. Laquan Javaris Fitzpatrick faces a capital murder charge in the case. North Little Rock police said another man, Brandon Leavy, was with Fitzpatrick when Wise died, though Leavy was shot and killed in January during another robbery attempt.

Cindy Wise mentioned neither by name on Sunday. But Leavy’s family and Fitzpatrick were listed in the ceremony’s program on a list of people to pray for.

Each of the songs sung in the ceremony had at least brief passages about loss and pain and grief.

In “Oh Happy Day,” Cindy Wise sang along with the band: “Endless joy and perfect peace / Earthly pain finally will cease.” She sang “Into the darkness you shine / Out of the ashes we rise” in “Our God.” During a song called “Eagle’s Wings,” she sang “Hide me in your love / Bring me to my knees / Come live in me / All my life take over / Come breathe in me / And I will rise / On eagles’ wings.”

One of Cindy Wise’s close friends, Susan Smith, told Wise that the Salvation Army in North Little Rock would feel her loss.

“You came to us as Capt. Wise,” Smith said. “You’re leaving us as Maj. Wise. But to all of us you’ll always be our friend Cindy.”

Major Ken Luyk said it had been his privilege to know Cindy and Philip Wise during some of their happiest times, such as when they adopted their three children. He told her he was proud, too, to “walk with you through some of your darkest times.”

Wise told the assembly in the sanctuary that God commanded them to continue to love people regardless of personal sentiments to the contrary.

“Those who break our hearts,” she said, “and those who throw fiery darts at us.”

She admitted that she still has not fully come to terms with what she lost.

“I still have my days,” she said. “I still have my days when I don’t want to get out of bed. But my god is an awesome God.”

She also said it was more than spirituality that has helped her cope.

“If I didn’t have Christ on my side - and a good therapist - I would have just crawled up and went to Satan,” she said.

Adopting her children here after nine years of trying to have her own meant she could never see her time in Arkansas as misspent time.

“Yes, I lost my husband,” she said. “But I gained my three little children.”

She said she understands if some people think she’s crazy when she says she continues to see Philip Wise in the front pew of the sanctuary.

“I can still see my husband sitting right there,” she said. “I can see him singing, trying to hit the high note. I can see it as plain as day.”

The last song of the two hour ceremony was “God of this City.” Wise again joined with the band. She sang “You’re the strength to my weakness / You’re the love to the broken / You’re the joy in our sadness / Greater things have yet to come / And greater things are still to be done / In this city.”