 Timeline |
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| 1983 |
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Born in Charleston, West Virginia on a beautiful Wednesday morning on May 18, 1983. Brandon was our first child and was welcomed into this world not only by his parents, but by his four grandparents and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. We lived in WV until April, 1984 when we made the move to Florida. |
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| School years |
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August, 1988 - started kindergarten at Sherwood Elementary - his first teacher was Mrs. Tyson. We were blessed to see her and her family at Brandon's Celebration of Life.
August,1996 - Johnson Junior High where he grew into the role model and leader he was to become as a young adult. Brandon played basketball, football, and ran track. He was awarded the Coach's Award and he was so thrilled to receive it from one of his favorite coaches - Coach DeCarlis. Coach Dave Driscoll and Coach Tom Kelly helped mold him into the basketball star that he became but Coach Driscoll also encouraged Brandon to use his brain, not just his athletic ability, when on the court. Thank you, Coach.
August, 1999 - Eau Gallie High School - Home of the Commodores and home of Brandon's lifelong friends. Brandon was nominated and awarded the J. Kyle Braid Athletic Leadership Award where he became a mentor to younger students in the Eau Gallie district. He absolutely loved going to Colorado for the week of fun and training with all the recepients of the J. Kyle Braid Award. He made lifelong friends and they will always be in our heart and our prayers. Brandon continued on with his athletics playing both varsity basketball and football where he was captain on both teams. He also played basketball for our church - Eau Gallie Christian Church. Brandon loved the ladies and he had three very beautiful young women as his girlfriends while in high school. Michele, Stacie and especially Brandi...thank you for bringing love and laughter into our son's life. You will always be a part of our family. Brandon graduated with honors on May 17, 2002.
August, 2002 - Lenoir Rhyne College - Hickory, North Carolina. When we drove on campus for our first visit to LRC, Brandon got out of the car and said, "this is it". "This is my school." He loved LRC, he loved his sports, he loved his classes, he loved his teachers and his advisor, Joe Smith, he loved his job and his boss, John Karrs, his loved his friends, his brothers of Pi Kappa Phi but most of all he loved his future bride, Shannon.
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| 2004 |
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At 4:10 am on Wednesday, November 24, 2004 Brandon was tragically killed on his way home for Thanksgiving break to visit his family in Florida. His beautiful fiance', Shannon Brophy, was with him but thankfully survived. We will never know what happened on that dark, lonely highway in South Carolina but I do know that Brandon was blessed to have our Lord, Jesus Christ in his heart. He will forever be missed by those of us left here on earth but will greet us with open arms when it is our turn to meet our Lord.
Saturday, December 4, 2004
BRANDON'S CELEBRATION OF LIFE
EAU GALLIE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
MELBOURNE, FLORIDA
We celebrated Brandon's life with so many of our friends and of course, our family on this Saturday afternoon. Thank you Principal Sawyer, Coach Higgins, Coach Gallagher, Coach Driscoll, Coach Kelly, Jesse Forrest, Jed Withers, Coach Dave Pfeil (words and feelings written by Dave and spoken so eloquently by our daughter, Emily), and especially thank you, Dennis Broderick for without your help, your inspiration and your love, we could not have made it through this trying time. Thank you Athletic Director and dear friend Barbara Berry for doing everything that you did...from the beautiful display of our son's athletic achievements to taking our daughters to breakfast and being there just for them to talk to you and for even taking your time away from all of your duties at EGHS to take family members to the airport. You will forever be held in our hearts and our prayers. We also want to thank everyone at Eau Gallie Christian Church for being there for us and for taking over the preparations. All of the ladies I worked with especially Joanie and Lynn for stepping up and doing what you did. You are truly my sisters. Thank you Steve for being there for Larry then and for continuing to be there for him now. You will forever be in our hearts as one of the good guys. To all the employees of Tarmac and management - how wonderful you were to us and especially to Larry. Dan, you drove all the way up from the south that morning just to be with Larry. Thank you for being there for him. To everyone else who were there for us, even though I haven't mentioned you by name, please know that you are in our hearts and prayers and we thank you for being there for us then and continue to now. Thank you. It was estimated that over 1000 people attended Brandon's Celebration of Life - I'm not really sure but I do know that I felt such love from my community and though I could only focus on my son, I want everyone of you to know that you mean the world to me. Students from Lenoir Rhyne College came all the way from North Carolina to be with us. What a tribute to them and to my son. Thank you. Shannon - your family flew all the way down here to Florida to be with us. Thank you so much for loving my son.
To all my family who made the trip down to Florida and to those who couldn't - I love you all dearly. Mary Ann - how could I have handled this without you. While Mom was up in heaven holding Brandon in her arms, you were down here taking her place and holding me together. Thank you. Dad, Mike and Ken - thank you for being there, for taking care of business in South Carolina for us and just being the men that you are.
Finally, to my husband Larry and my beautiful twin daughters, Katie and Emily - though our life forever changed on that Wednesday morning, we have each other and we have our love of Brandon and he would want us to go on and celebrate our lives, look forward to the future and be happy. And though it seems impossible to do that, we must if only for our love of our Brandon. Rest peacefully, Angel Boy. Mom will always love you and will always have that one special place in her heart only for you. |
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