The Day That Changed Our Lives Forever
May 16, 2001 started out like an ordinary day.
Brandon was going to Graduate on May 17th, 2001 at 5pm. His practice was at 6:00 am on the 17th.
I went to Buffalo, NY to celebrate my birthday with my brother Jim, who was also having a birthday.
We have never done this before as we lived 1,250 miles away from each other. He being the older
with a few years on me, he was married and had his first child at age 19. With both our birthdays
being in May, we had decided, a few months before, to plan a trip to celebrate together not thinking
that it would be graduation time. In Florida May is when kids get out of school and graduate if they
are going to. Brandon got out a week earlier than my daughter Tiffany as he was a senior and they
got out one week before the under graduates. I made reservations with my niece Julie to go up to Buffalo.
She was going to visit her dad and I my brother and his wife and daughter Shania. After I made airline
reservations, I realized that Brandon was graduating during the time I would be gone.
Brandon overheard me call his Uncle Jim and telling him I had just made the reservations
but now I was going to have to change them because of Brandon’s graduation ceremony.
Being the unselfish person he was, he said “mom go” You and Uncle Jim have never celebrated
a birthday together and it would be nice to do that. He said dad would take all kinds of videos
and pictures and I wouldn’t miss a thing as my husband always carried these things to every special event.
My birthday was May 10th and Jim’s was May 20th. Brandon’s graduation day was the 17th.
We decided to celebrate on the day of his graduation as Brandon insisted. I believe to this
day that God made my decision to go celebrate our birthdays together because he knew he was
coming to hold out his hand to Brandon to take him home. I was feeling very guilty about
being there and thinking, how could a mother not be at her son’s once in a lifetime event.
I believe I went because God knew I would have never been able to handle it.
It was 10:00pm on May 16, 2001 when Brandon’s fiancé, April called Fred, my husband to tell
him when Brandon got home to please give him the message not to pick her up in the morning
for graduation practice by himself and to come over after. He said he would give Brandon
the message. Fred waited awhile and Brandon didn’t return home so he started calling some
of his friend’s houses and they all said they hadn’t seen him since the morning and that he
was probably at April’s. Fred knew that he wasn’t there because April said he left there at
9:15pm. He told her he was tired and going home to get to bed so he could get up in the
morning for the practice. Brandon’s dad waited until 1:00am and went on to bed. If I was there,
I would have went out looking for him and maybe found his car with him dead in it. That is why I
was pulled to NY. Something told me to go and now I know why. Fred figured that Brandon stopped
at someone’s house and was having a good time and that he would be home soon. Fred got up the next
morning around 7:00am and went straight to Brandon’s room and figured that he came in late and went
to bed and got up to go to the practice because he said he looked for his cap and gown and it wasn’t
on the couch in his room so he thought that he was here and gone not knowing that Brandon took the
cap and gown with him that day in the morning when he left home. When Fred got up, he said it
seemed like a usual day. He had breakfast, he left for a haircut, Tiffany, our daughter and
Brandon’s sister was late for school that day and we also know why she was late too as she was
always on time for school. She thinks if she would have left the time she was suppose to she
would have seen Brandon, all of the highway patrol and ambulances there and she would have known i
t was Brandon. She left about 8:05 am and drove right past the accident site and never saw a thing.
What made her not look to the left is beyond me. The only thing that was there was his car because
they already came and got Brandon. He was dead in his car on his way home from April’s at 9:30pm.
Our neighbors, Mike and Misty told me it was a very foggy night that night and that you could hardly
see in front of you. Misty said it took her husband Mike a long time to get home from work that night
and that he had also passed the accident site where Brandon lay dead in his car and he didn’t see a thing.
It was not easy to see in the fog and dark.
After Tiffany left for school and Fred was at the barber shop, my dad, who lives with us because my
mom died suddenly, answered the door. It was the Florida Highway patrol. He asked if a Brandon Krug
lived there. He answered yes and he said there has been an accident and that Brandon was deceased.
My dad got in the car and left knowing that Fred would be home soon and didn’t know how to break the
news to him. Eventually he went back home after thinking things out and Fred walked in the door and
he told him. That is when our life started to change forever.
That night, at my brothers, I had a vision or a dream that I had actually seen the whole entire accident.
I had seen Brandon hitting the fence, and going on to the big pine tree. I had seen him hit the steering
wheel and that was when I got up out of bed and started making coffee. He got up shortly after wondering
why I as up so early. I didn’t tell him what had happened to me that morning at 5:00am. I had a few
cups of coffee and started out to get some gift bags so I could get ready for the next day birthday
celebration. I was walking in the store and kept thinking about what had happened to me and I would
think it was just a dream, reassuring myself over and over.
After getting my errands done, I went back to my brother and sister in law’s home. I decided to call
Fred at that time. It is funny that I dialed the phone and immediately handed the phone to my brother
which I have never done before. I said “Hey Jim, you talk to him” Fred answered the phone and Jim handed
it right back to me saying “Fred is hysterical”. I knew what had happened before Fred told me. I believe
it was Brandon telling me what had happened.
After that everything was very blurry. I do know that I flew home with my niece Shania and sister in law
Debbie. They stayed with us for a month. I can tell you I would never have been able to do it without her.
She stuck with me for everything. She went to the funeral home to help pick out Brandon’s casket. She
helped with picking out flowers. I wouldn’t have been able to do it alone. Thank you from the bottom
of my heart Debbie and Jim. Thank you for being there for me. I love you both.
I want to thank everyone who had a part in this from people who didn’t even know Brandon or even us.
I want to thank all our family who stuck by us threw this most difficult time. I want to thank Sharon Krug
who called me every single day from her home in NYS to keep me going and talking to me. You are a
wonderful sister in law. I love you … I want to thank George and Betty Krug my sister and brother in law
who were there in a flash from NYS and helped us get through this. I want to thank everyone who knew
Brandon and us and kept calling us and sending cards and their condolences and dropping off food for the family.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart and the bottom of Fred’s and Tiffany’s hearts….
Love, Debbie, Fred and Tiffany
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