Brenda Ann Kessler
9/7/1956 - 6/17/2006
To say Brenda is a Mary Engelbreit fan is an understatement. She is actually the Queen of the Mary Engelbreit Cult. I think the qualifier is she has more Mary stuff than anyone else.
Saturday the 17th of June was to be a Birthday Party for some of Brenda’s close Mary friends and an excuse to party down, spiked punch and all.
She took Thursday and Friday off work to prepare. That’s right, two days to get ready. She had the place pretty well slicked up when Chris Carroll came over Sat AM to help with final preparations.
They had the table set, the Horse Divers ready, the punch measured out.
The party was supposed to start at 1PM.
About 12:30, Brenda was casually leaning against the counter in the kitchen when she put her hand to her neck and said “I feel really weird”. From the look on her face I knew something was really wrong. I went to her to help her to the couch but it was difficult for her to walk. Chris and I got her to the couch but she couldn’t sit.
I called 911.
On the way to the hospital she stopped breathing, so they stuck the thing down her throat to breathe for her.
By the time she got to the hospital she was unconscious and unresponsive. After several tests and images, the doctors determined that she had had a “Massive Cerebral Hemorrhage” and after other tests she was pronounced brain dead sometime Saturday afternoon.
She donated her organs per her wishes so that others may live. The lucky people who got her spare parts have a piece of one of the most wonderful, giving people in the world.
She’s an Angel now.
Her remains have been cremated and she's home with me. Her urn is a Mary Engelbreit container. I'll change the container with the seasons, cause that’s the kind of gal she is. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentines Day ……………., she loves them all.
On Saturday, the 17th of June, the sun went down.