Telling The Story of Brandi
My sister Brandi was a hilarious, caring, vivacious person. She would drive all night if she thought a family member or friend needed help. Her kids were the most important things in her life and she lived every day to make sure they were healthy and happy. As much as she loved others, however, she never thought she deserved the love of others.
She surrounded herself with boyfriends who never appreciated her worth, and worse, made her believe she had no worth. Each one treated her worst than the last until, one night, one took her life. It was described during pretrial as one of the most vicious, disturbing, and rage-fueled scenes that some veteran police officers had ever witnessed.
Brandi and Her Last Moments
He had beaten her so viciously, we couldn’t even have an open casket at her funeral. The director called us and told us there was nothing she could do to make her viewable. That struck me in places of my heart that I didn’t know could hurt. During the private viewing, we understood why. I won’t describe what we saw that day, but I will say no one should ever be subjected to what we endured that morning.
It tore our family apart and caused so much grief, that my mother’s heart couldn’t take it. She died from a heart attack 3 months later. I share this today in the hopes that one victim will read this and it gives the courage to leave their situation so that their family members will never have to go through what we did.
