Ben

David Paul Borandi


Submitted by: Elizabeth Borandi Sanger
Born: 1981
Died: 2016
My Tribute: A Single Grain of Sand
Elizabeth Sanger – October 21, 2016
(I wrote this for my son not longer after he died)

I placed this kiss upon your brow
for you have left me now
I grieve when I wake
I grieve when I sleep
But to you my promise I did keep

I am leaving you now.
Was I wrong to deem
that my life is now in this dream?
Yet hope has been dreamed away
within a night and within a day.
Are you a vision or an impression
which is therefore any less gone?
All that I see or have seen
is all but a dream within a dream.

I stand among the beckoning roar
at the edge of a damned and tormented shore.
Grasping tightly in my hand
are the grains of white colored sand.
How many, how few and how they creep
from my fingers into the deep.
I weep for a loss the pain that I weep!
As I cannot grasp
any with a tighter clasp?
Why can I not save a single grain
from the angry wave?
Is this all that I see it would seem
a dream within a dream?

I placed a kiss upon your brow
for in that moment you have left me now
I grieve you when I wake
I grieve you when I sleep
My son, my promise to you I forever shall keep

Shane McGlaughlin


Submitted by: Mother
Born: 1978
Died: 2015
My Tribute: My heart breaks and this pain will never pass from my life. You had a heart of Gold and everyone loved you. It only takes one time to get a drug that would kill you. Miss you so much and love you forever Shane. Mom

Christina Vance

Submitted by: Mother -Shelly
Born: 3/87
Died: 3/17
My Tribute: Our sweet, beautiful daughter,Christina ,passed away 3/30/2017 from accidental heroin laced with Fentanyl overdose . We miss her and love her so so much . She had a good ❤️ And was loved by many . S

Patrick William Troup


Submitted by: Mother
Born: 1985
Died: 2016
My Tribute: Life will never be the same without you wandering here among us
Brightest eyes and shining smile
That loving way you had about you
We never had the time to say good bye.

Hail! the 30 years we had together loving compassionate brave kind soul. you will always live in my heart.

Jesse DeMeule


Submitted by: Mom
Born: 7/92
Died: 5/17
My Tribute: My light, my world my greatest love. I wish you could see how many people loved you. Over and over I hear how kind, loving and supportive you were to others not to mention how you made everyone laugh through your own struggles and pain. You lifted so many people up and did anything you could for others, I only wish you could have done it for yourself. You were worthy of all love even if you didn’t know it. With every breathe I think of you and love you my son Jesse Always

Tronn Tomtene


Submitted by: Tracey (sister)
Born: 1973
Died: 2017
My Tribute: This is a letter I read to my brother at his funeral (he died a few weeks ago from liver cirrhosis):

To my big bro… I know you are here beside me and here in my heart. Despite how different we were, in many ways, we were exactly alike. I felt like sometimes we were so in tune, that I understood you more than I even understood myself at times. And others, I felt like I didn’t know you at all. Regardless, my love for you never waivered and I cherished the kinship we had as brother and sister.

I sensed how deeply you felt things from a young age. Your heart was so soft that you used to feel sorry for the garbage we took to the burning barrel. I must have always felt you needed some extra protection. In Elementary school, when word got out on the playground that the school bully was picking on you, without a thought, I ran up behind him and gave him a swift kick between the legs, just as the school bell rang and ran for dear life to the door where I knew Mr. Galambos was waiting to save me from certain death!

I look back now and know he picked on you because he knew how gentle you were and that he could get away with it. I have been struggling with so many emotions since we said goodbye. I am trying to find peace in the fact that you don’t have to suffer anymore, but I still wish you were here and that I could have saved you somehow. If only I had just said the exact right thing at the right time or made you feel just a little more loved, could it have changed this outcome?

Through your struggles, I felt like no matter what I did to try and help you in your life, we always ended up in the same place.

What I know for sure, is that your character was strong and that this disease was a fight that is very hard to win. No one could really know the turmoil going on inside of you on a constant basis or what it felt like to be you.

You were a warrior. When I think of the things you went through in your lifetime and the strength that you had to have to endure it all, I am in awe.

I know that I am so heartbroken thinking about how lonely you were at times and that you didn’t feel loved. I hope that now, you can see how many people did love you and wanted nothing but happiness and wellness for you.

I know how much you cherished your family and friendships and how much their support meant to you. I know how much love you had in your heart for not only us but random strangers you felt sorry for on the street. I know you wanted to find someone to love and have children of your own someday. I know you were trying. I know you wanted to be well. I know you had a thirst for life and had so many hopes and dreams, but just as many demons. I know that if I ever needed help of any kind and you were able to give it, you would. I know that you felt your pain and sorrow so deeply that it was hard to let it go and heal from it. I know that I will never get over losing you. I know that I am so grateful for the time that you and Dad and I got to spend together these last few years as a family. I will look back on these times as some of the best of my life. I know that I will miss you making fun of my hippy lifestyle and I teasing you about your big belly. I know that growing up with you was a privilege. When I think of our childhood, I think of “Bladley and Blian” Mitchell, Regan Quayle, dirt bikes, summers at Waskesui Lake, riding our little Kitty Kat ski-doo, 3wheelers, 4-wheelers and skateboards. Making home videos of air bands with our cousins and friends in full hair band make up, banging our heads to Quiet Riot, cruising around in your Impala and singing at the top of our lungs to Nirvana.

I know that you will forever be in my heart and that not a day, not an hour, not a minute will go by that I won’t feel like I am missing a part of myself that I counted on for so long and that was always there, but I sometimes took for granted.

I know you loved me. I know you loved Dad. I know you fought hard and made mistakes as we all do as human beings. There were times I had to love you from afar. And times I made all your problems my own. I know we had a bond so deep that we could look at each other and know exactly what the other was thinking. I know how much the farm was a part of your whole being. It ran through your veins and in every cell of your body. It was your north star. Your home.

This is not how any of us wanted to see you coming back here. But I know that you are now wherever you want to be. Just like Mom, you will be with me wherever I am now I will see you in the wheat fields, feel you in the prairie breeze and hear you in the chirps of the chickadees…and anytime an AC/DC or Metallica song comes on.

I love and miss you brother. Your song has ended, but your melody will linger forever.

Your body is away from me
But there is a window open from my heart to yours.
From this window, like the moon I keep sending news secretly.

– Rumi

Love,
Fusty Wusty