Shellye's Blog

My Brook

On May 17 Brook spent her fourth birthday in heaven. We were blessed to have her for nineteen years. Far to short in our eyes but perfect, down to the second, in God’s eyes. Kevan and I were just temporary guardians until He was ready to take her back home. Here is a picture when she was one day old with her big sister Kami and when she was one year old with Kami always by her side.

• 

• 

Brook was the best baby. She was happy all the time unless you woke her from a nap. Even as a toddler she was always happy. She should have had a sign that said wake at your own risk. Brook loved playing with stuffed animals, plastic animals and her Fisher Price City. Brook enjoyed it when Kevan would put her on his bike and take her for rides.

We often laugh at how sneaky Brook was even at a young age. She was probably 2 or 3 when toys or stuffed animals that belonged to Kami would start to disappear. For the longest time we couldn’t figure out what happened to them. One night I was elevating the head of Brook’s bed because her allergies were so bad and there on the floor in the far corner were the missing items. Brook was standing next to me smiling. The other time we laugh about is the time Brook was around three and she and Kami spent the night with Honey and Grand Daddy. My mom and dad had gotten the girls donuts for breakfast the next morning. When we went to pick up the girls we couldn’t find Brook. We searched every inch of the house, the front yard, the backyard, and we were in a panic. We all went back inside to search again. We looked in closets, every nook and cranny and as I came back by the kitchen I just happen to see little legs from the knees down under the kitchen table which had a long table cloth on it. I went over and lifted up the table cloth and there was Brook with a sack of donut holes in one hand and a donut hole in the other. Happy as a lark eating donut holes while the rest of us were panic stricken.

When Brook started school we found out that she was color blind. This is rare for girls. We wouldn’t know until some years later that we would in a loving way refer to Brook as a rare breed. Brook was a good student when she wanted to be. She was like all students in most respects last minute to do homework and stuff. Brook loved to read. She loved helping the librarian in elementary school. She cut her hair in first grade, tried to hide it, lied to the teacher about it and when the teacher called the house that afternoon Brook knew it was not going to be a happy evening. Neither Kevan nor I could spank her for lying because when we got off the phone with her teacher she was in her room singing I have decided to follow Jesus.

By the time Brook finished elementary we knew she was color blind, had her tonsils removed, her adenoids removed twice and that she was smart. She had tried soccer. She was jogging and waving to us as she went up and down the field. She tried swimming and we cheered as she swam at her own pace down the lane. She was just happy to be on the team no matter the sport and have fun. We knew athletics wasn’t her thing but we were glad she tried different things. In junior high and high school she continued to excel academically and she was in the school band. Brook was never big on school parties or dances. She didn’t care about homecoming, proms or those types of things. She was always happy to be at home with her books and her electronics.

Brook loved Harry Potter. Brook read all the books. In fact she read them so many times that some of them are in several pieces. We have all the books that Brook bought or received and read in the library which is her room. My mom took Kami and Brook to the first couple of Harry Potter movies. Brook, Kami and their Aunt Paige started going to the Harry Potter movies together. They would dress up and have the best time. I feel confident in saying that Brook would beat anyone in a Harry Potter trivia contest. Kevan and I are so grateful that God allowed us to be able to take Brook to the Wizarding World or Harry Potter just about six months before she passed away. You can’t see it in the picture below but she bought every piece so that she had the complete outfit and it couldn’t be more fitting than to have her buried in it. Thank you Kami for knowing that is what she would have wanted.

We moved Brook to Tempe, Arizona when she was seventeen so she could attend the University of Advancing Technology. She bloomed and thrived out there. She attended classes that she wasn’t enrolled in. She attended meetings for clubs that she wasn’t a part of. She got a job on campus and before we knew it she was president of student government. Kevan, Kami and I went back a few months after Brook started school at UAT to visit. Everyone we passed she knew their life story and they knew her. We could just tell she fit. From that moment on we said Brook you found your people. She started clubs and changed lives. When Brook passed away they had a memorial service on campus. I remember them telling us before the service that only a couple of students were going to speak because its just uncomfortable for these kids who are introverts and socially awkward to speak in front of large groups of people. I don’t recall how many students spoke because much of that time is a blur but it was much much more than three. Brook changed people!

I know Brook hasn’t been here to see this but she has changed me in so many ways since her death. I still have so much to change. My Brook was a rare breed! She touched and changed more lives in nineteen years than most do in eighty years. More than I have touched in my fifty years on this earth. Brook isn’t done yet. She continues to touch, change, save and inspire people from heaven. She understood the importance of accepting everyone! For Brook there was no checklist you had to meet. She understood the importance of befriending everyone! She was kind, she was hilarious, she was generous, she was genuine, she was intelligent and she was a bright light in what was sometimes a dark and lonely place for people. Below are the last pictures we have with Brook when we flew her home for the last time. Her hair was literally snow-cone blue. Thus Kevan is pretending to lick her hair.

• 

• 

•