HAPPY, JOYOUS AND WORKING –
Sept. 30, 2022 – Lyman grew up in “a church school setting,” he said, living “kind of a sheltered life” in the Bellevue-Issaquah area. His late father, Steve, owned his own construction company.
He moved away from home when he was 18 years old just after graduation and began working full time, becoming, he said, “a construction workaholic” for years to come.
“There were phases, when I was single and without a wife or kids, when that was not a problem, and is actually a good thing for young men to do,” Lyman said. “But when I left home, I moved in with a buddy into kind of a party house. Some of the people there ended up partying so much they lost their jobs. My thing between 17 and 21 was just smoke weed after work, sleep, eat, get up and go to work again.” Lyman kicked the weed and booze for the first time when he was 22 years old and got his life “back in focus with God, community and church.” And in that golden period, he met his future wife, Lana, a Mississippi girl, at a convention in Texas.
Once the couple were married, they served as youth leaders at what is today Eastside Apostolic Church.
But about six years ago, Lyman — by then a business owner with three kids — began to struggle with alcohol again.
Outwardly, he seemed to have everything together, and he convinced even himself that such was the case. But it was an illusion. It took him some time to figure the truth out, but he was killing himself.
