Remarkable Faith: A Funeral Too Soon

Today, I am participating in Mary from Giving Up On Perfect's Remarkable Faith journey. Yay! Everyone else, however, is writing about a wedding. I will do a wedding next week, but today I had to be different. :) You'll see why!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Are you wearing your green? I hope so. Usually, that's all St. Patricks Day is. It's just a fun day where you wear a green t-shirt and maybe eat some food dyed green.

For most people, when they think St. Patrick's day, their mind goes to green, four leaf clover, rainbow, pot of Gold, luck, etc. My mind thinks a fleeting thought about all of those things, and then I think of what St. Patrick's day REALLY means to me.

Brandon Times.

For grades kindergarten through sixth I went to Holy Spirit, in Fairfield, California. I loved that school so much! Sixth grade was the best, though.

In sixth grade we got reading buddies. First grade reading buddies. Me? I got Brandon Times.

Sweetest little guy you would have ever met. He could fill your heart with joy on the worst of days. On his own worst days. 

Brandon had  T-Cell Leukemia. A 6 year old. Leukemia.

It wasn't often that he was at school. He was usually absent, getting treatment done. On those pretty rare Monday's he did make it to school though, I was psyched. I loved reading with him!

We were a bunch of kids. 6 year olds, 11 year olds, we didn't know much about cancer. We knew Brandon was sick, and we prayed for him.

{Deep Breath.}

St Patricks Day 2004. I had on my favorite green shirt, we had just eaten dinner, and I was feeling happy. Why not?  The phone rang and I jumped to answer it.

YES! It was "private caller" a.k.a. my very best friend {to this day!} Sabrina.

That's when the world shattered.

I answered the phone only to hear the most startling, alarming, down right terrifying sound I've ever heard.

Sobbing. Hysterical sobbing. So bad I couldn't even understand my best friends words.

"What? Why are you crying?"

"SABRINA! I can't understand you!" Me in all my panicky glory.

"SABRINA!!!" I was worried for her.

"BRANDON DIED!" She managed to choke out between sobs.

I don't know how you react when you hear this kind of news, but it's the most terrifying thing in the world for me. My heart literally drops. I can't breathe for a moment. I can't catch up with reality. It's so horribly terrifying.

I didn't know what else to do. I screamed, "Brandon DIED!!!"

My parents came running. They grabbed the phone. I don't remember anything else.

We were eleven. We had just experience a death. My BEST FRIEND had just called me, hysterically sobbing, to tell me that my sweet little reading buddy, Brandon, had died.

At age 6.

I truly remember nothing else besides this moment with my dear best friend.

Except. that is, the moment  a few days later when all the solemn first and sixth graders lined up to take buses to the funeral home.

This is the most wrong kind of field trip I can think of.

We sat through the service, all 80 of us 1st and 6th graders {only his class and the reading buddy class got to come along.} The tears were streaming full force. They're streaming right now. :)

We certainly didn't understand it all. It was the first death for most of us. All we knew was that, while our tears were watering the grass here on Earth, Brandon was up laughing and playing, fully healed, in Heaven. 

In a better place.

And that is what allowed us young souls to get through the loss of our sweet little friend.

This funeral was by far the most impactful on my life.

For God to take a 6 year old, to cause his parents so much grief and heartbreak, there had to be a reason.

It's not fair. It's NOT! Still, 7 years later {Oh gosh, has it been that long?} I know we would all love to have him back.

I don't even know how many of us kids from the sixth grade class still remember. I could be the only one. But that's okay with me.

I don't think about Brandon everyday, but for about the last month I have been.

I'm a better person because of him.

Just a few days ago, I was reading my Bible and I came across Genesis 9:13:

 "I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth."

That's right. We are still connected. Brandon's up there in Heaven, on top of the clouds, at the peak of the rainbow, just out of reach.

"The rainbow appears when the clouds are most disposed to wet; when we have most reason to fear the rain prevailing, God shews this seal of the promise that it shall not prevail.
The rainbow appears when one part of the sky is clear, which imitates mercy remembered in the midst of wrath, and the clouds are hemmed as it were with the rainbow, that it may not overspread the heavens, for the bow is coloured rain, or the edges of a cloud gilded. As God looks upon the bow that he may remember the covenant, so should we, that we also may be ever mindful of the covenant with faith and thankfulness."

{Via Wesley's Explanatory Notes}

Be praying for Brandon's family today, if you would be so kind. His sweet Mom, Laura, has a memorial website for Brandon that you can check out to learn more about him.

For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there. - 1 Samuel 1:27-28

Who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. - 2 Corinthians 1:4

Blessings!

P.S: Since everyone else is writing about weddings today, I figured I would share this. {To cheer you up!} 

Today marks the 21st anniversary of my very close friend Mary Elizabeth's parents! What a *lucky* day to be married on. :)

Here's to 21 more! Congrats Leslie and Mike Rumsey!

This just goes to show you: It's all a miracle. Life, death, resurrection, we have so much to be thankful for, even in times of sadness! :)