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    Brandy was a remarkable person and was always a joy to be around.  She died a tragic accident, in which no one will forget.  No one should have to die in the prime of their life, especially at the age of 18.

    Brandy had just graduated from High School the past Spring, and was attending classes at MCCC, She had also become engaged to James Raney, her boyfriend.

    The thing that I will miss most about her is her sense of humor.  She had a unique sense of humor, as well as an unique laugh... it was sort of like a Beached Whale.  I dunno, you'd just have to have heard it. She had a great personality. She was someone that you would have been glad to be friends with.

    I had the pleasure of getting to know Brandy during the four years that I played Basketball with her.  She was always laughing about something.  Even the times when you just wanted to scream, like when we had to run track and we were always in the back because we were slow runners. Out of 12 people, the four forwards were always the slowest in track... but WHO CARES?  Not me, I don't like running anyway.

    The day of her death will always be something I will never forget.  It was an ordinary Tuesday morning.  I didn't really want to go to school that day, I just wanted to sleep in, Just Once!  On the way to school, the bus slowed down about 2 miles from the school and the bus driver announced that there had been a wreck.  I saw a few of my teachers and Brandy's mom at the site, but it never occurred to me that it could be Brandy.  After I get to school, I learned that Brandy was the one in the wreck and that they are going to airlift her to Memphis as soon as she is stable enough.  The next few hours were extremely difficult for everyone at my school.

    During third hour, my teacher left the room and she came back with the announcement that Brandy had passed away 15 minutes ago.  They never even had a chance of airlifting her.  I will never forget those words, or what I felt afterwards.  In a way, I think I already knew.  About 15 minutes before the announcement, I all of a sudden found my self in tears, and wasn't able to stop myself... after a few minutes I quit crying.  Next thing I know, we are told that Brandy died.

    Visitation was  held the following Thursday at Cobb's Funeral Home of Blytheville.  James looked as though he was still in a state of shock.  I don't even think that he knew what was going on around him.  Trudy and John L, her parents, were trying to console everyone even though they were barely keeping it together themselves.  I will never forget what Amber, her little sister, said that night.  As soon as she saw my friends and I, she ran up to us and told us that she wanted her "Big Sissy", and then she burst out crying.  My heart went out to Amber and her family.

    The next day was the Funeral.  The school flag was raised half mass in her honor, and school was let out early so that the students and teachers could attend the funeral.  Trudy requested that the ball players sit in the front and sign a basketball on Brandy's behalf.  They started playing "Angel" by Sarah McClaughin, and we all walked up to the casket crying, and signed the basketball.  As we all sat down, our Coach stood in front of the casket and held out the basketball, as if to say, "This is for you."  And he just couldn't hold back anymore. He burst into tears.  They started playing "Now That I Found You", by Terri Clark (James' and Brandy's song), and James just started screaming, "I want her back".  The worst came when John L went up to say something about Brandy, and he was trying to talk between sobs and he started to shake extremely bad.  The finally had to help him to his seat.