‘Memorializing our children who are in heaven’

Logan Dailey
Posted 9/28/22

Second Annual Remembrance Walk

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‘Memorializing our children who are in heaven’

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WHEATLAND – A trail at Lewis Park was adorned with signs, photographs and memories of those dearly departed on Saturday as families, friends and neighbors gathered to honor and celebrate their loved one’s lives.

The second annual Remembrance Memorial Walk provided an opportunity for families to share the stories of their loved ones and keep their memories alive.

“We’re just memorializing our children who are in heaven,” Joan Branescom said.

Branescom lost her son in a fatal tractor accident at Camp Guernsey in 1976. Douglas “Doug” Branescom was 17 years and 17 days old on that fateful day.

“My husband (George Branescom) was the camp supply officer at Camp Guernsey, Branescom explained. “They hired summer help; teenagers, teachers who were not working... So, Doug worked over there summers, and he was mowing grass over there at the ammo dump. He was on a hill side and the tractor tipped over. In those days, tractors didn’t have roll bars. I think the next day every tractor at Camp Guernsey had a roll bar.”

Doug had completed his junior year and would have begun his senior year at Wheatland High School that fall.

“Doug was really big into 4-H and FFA,” Branescom said. “He was a supporter of FFA from the word, ‘Go.’ When the young people, who were his age talk about him, that’s the thing they bring up, ‘he was the person we looked up to in FFA.’”

In honor of his memory, members of the community built a showring at the fairgrounds and erected a sign in memory of Doug.

“The farmers took their land levelers out there, and it was quite a community production,” Branescom said. “When we built it, we built it with wooden rail fence, and of course, wooden rails don’t last forever, so they have refenced it.”

Additionally, the vocational classes and FFA members built a memorial at the high school vocational building with a granite base and a historic horse drawn plow to memorialize Doug.

“The memory never leaves; never, the memory never leaves,” Branescom said. “It leaves a mark, and that’s a good thing; you want it to be that way.”

Branescom noted that everyone copes differently.

“I’m not sure you could tell somebody how to (cope),” Branescom said. “I do remember; I picked the child’s jacket up every night, every night; he never hung his coat up. The last time I picked it up, I said, ‘I will never complain about picking up anybody’s clothes again. Pick them up while you have the opportunity.’”

Grayson Wyndham of Pueblo, Colorado shared a bit about the loss of his sister, Audrey “Greer” Wyndham.

“I graduated from high school here and went to the Navy,” Wyndham said. “I was in the nuclear power program as a machinist mate…she was 17 when it happened. She was in a car accident. Her horse was foundering or a little bit sick and she was upset about it, so she and a friend went for a drive. While they were driving, they went over a bridge, over a culvert and the outside tires accidentally went outside of the bridge and they caught a fence post that caused the car to flip. They were in a little Mazda Miata.”

The accident proved fatal for Greer, who was a senior at Chugwater High School at the time.

“I was actually in the barracks in Groton, Connecticut,” Wyndham explained. “The petty officer who was head of the division that I was in, and the senior chief, came in and they just woke me up. He was kind of a grumpy old dude, but he was just straight forward: ‘There’s no easy way to tell this, so I’m just going to tell it to you; your sister died.’ At that point, it doesn’t really sink in. He said, ‘I can’t imagine what you’re going through. You react however you need to react, if you need to stand up and start throwing punches into the wall, then you can start doing that.’”

Wyndham didn’t do any of that. He said he let it “flow over and soak in,” but the following day proved to be very challenging for him. He said the reality of the situation never kicked in until later when he had time alone while driving.

“It didn’t actually kick in until I was driving from my grandmother’s farm, into town, into the hotel where we had some other family staying,” Wyndham explained. “It just hit, and I just had to stop because I couldn’t see anymore.”

Wyndham pointed out an interesting aspect of dealing with the loss of his sister. He explained how a young man had recently joined his place of work, and in the course of discussion, Greer was brought up and the fact that Wyndham continues his life, living with the fact his sister is deceased.

“It like shocked him, and you could see it take stuff out of him, him be really upset and sorry. I felt bad that he was getting upset and sorry,” Wyndham explained. “I’m really at peace with it at this point…nineteen years of healing, I’m at peace with it. It’s still painful, but it’s more helpful talking with anyone, than it is hurtful.”

Though at peace with the past, Wyndham noted the importance of keeping the memory of a lost one alive.

“We talk about her, things that my daughter and son do that remind me of her,” Wyndham explained. “Even just a burp; Greer was a cute little girl, but man, she could make herself burp. It was, in hindsight, pretty gross, but also hilarious. So, when my kids do that, I’m like, ‘oh hey, you should have heard the kinds of burps your aunt Greer could do!’ That’s just a specific thing, but it’s just the little things like that.”

Wyndham expressed the importance of reflecting on memories and talking with others about loved ones.

“The thing that got me through it, really, was I had to realize that I wasn’t the only one that was going through it; that I had family and friends all around me who were also going through it, too,” Wyndham explained. “I was really close to my sister, and one of the people who I loved most in the world was just all of a sudden gone and I felt like I was by myself dealing with it.

“Once I got out of the Navy, I had some troubles in life. I finally started talking to a counselor and my family more about it and I wasn’t holding it all inside anymore. I think sometimes people don’t realize how much weight they are holding inside when they are dealing with loss. The fact that I could share Greer with everyone around me instead of holding onto that sadness the whole entire time, that, was uplifting; it wasn’t dark and sad all the time.”

Though Wyndham and Branescom feel the loss of their loved one every day, they also persevere and live their life to the fullest while still honoring and cherishing the memory of their loved one.

Those attending the memorial who had lost children had several items available for them to take and enjoy. Phyllis Gapter, a local realtor, and Tiffany Dean from Gorman Funeral Homes were just a couple of people who had prepared items for family to take in remembrance of lost children.

Among the many items available were shirts, angel wing trinkets, decorative stones and stone crosses.

After sharing embraces with one another and catching up on days gone by, the group gathered at the band shell in Lewis Park to hear as Chuck and Katie Brown read words of comfort. Following the Browns’ presentation, Mary Budd and Riggin Smith read the names of those dearly departed.

Kathie Hoffman, a participant at the event, expressed the importance of keeping memories alive.

“Keep the memory alive, don’t ignore it,” she said. “Some people don’t want to talk about, or are scared to talk about, children that families have lost. Don’t ignore it, ask them about their child. They want to share the stories with you; it keeps their loved one’s memory alive.”