Remembering #1

The big day came and went. I think all of us had a transformational experience as the result of building our altar for Dia de los Muertos. If you click on the link, it will take you to an abbreviated slide show of the event.

After we finished putting up the altar at the Bakersfield Museum of Art, we went to a local restaurant for lunch before we had to be back when the exhibits opened to the public. As we sat around the table, each of us shared a bit about the people we honored. Over the next few entries, we will blog about these people, starting first with Brandon Wedel.



Lisa writes that Brandon was born on 2/28/1983 and died 2/19/02. She provides these details ~

Brandon was killed in a car accident, he was riding in the back seat of the car and upon impact broke his neck. Brandon died 9 days before his 19th birthday, so February is a very tough month to get through for our family. Brandon was a free spirit, he could be a real pain in the neck, hard to handle, but would also light up a room when in walked in. He truly lived his fully, even though it wasn't for very long.

Brandon was a fan of music, very diversified from classic rock, reggie, alternative, Merle Haggard and also some classical. The Grateful Dead was one of his favorite bands.

Brandon had friends from all over Bakersfield, each very different and thankfully some very close friends that we still keep in contact with today.

We wish would be for Brandon to still be here with us, because we all miss him, but since that is not possible, my wish is to keep his memory alive and opportunities such as these are perfect, thank you to all of you for the helping me fulfill my wish.

Every year on the anniversary of his death and his birthday, we post a "In Memory Of" ad in the newspaper, this has become a tradition and at that time I ask people to share their stories of Brandon in his Guest Book that is on Legacy.com, this is also very comforting to me, I love to read what people write and it always amazes me that someone is usually always touch by the articles and write in the Guest Book, some don't even know Brandon or our family, but feel like sharing with us their feelings, I think that is awesome and Brandon keeps showing me even in death he still has the power to light up a room.