An Optimistic Sky | The Story of Bryan William Stewart
Bryan's
Story
This is is the story of the life of Bryan William Stewart.
For the purpose of this story and my philosophy, I’ll always say “Bryan is.”
’ll always refer to him in the present tense because I know he is with his
Lord in heaven, carrying out his eternal mission.
As a family, while we’re
still on this earth, we also choose to let Bryan’s legacy live on in us
through several venues. I’ll talk about those as I progress through this story. This story is, in fact a key tool to maintaining Bryan’s legacy.
INTRODUCTION
WHERE WE'VE BEEN
YOUNG MARINES
THE FROGS AND THE MONKEY
SPORTS
STORIES
MEDIA
- EARLY
- TDR
- LEP
- JDM
- A NEW LOVE; STILL PHOTOGRAPHY
- SOME OF HIS WORK
RASLIN'
OUR RELATIONSHIP
- ANG
- JEN
- MOM
- DAD
LOOK ALIKES
BRY'S BABY; THE BO-MOBILE
WHY AM I PROUD OF BRYAN?
BRYAN'S PASSING FROM HIS MOM'S EYES
ANGELA'S POSTS ON SM
FRIEND'S POSTS ON SM
MAINTAINING THE LEGACY
WHAT IS THE CONCLUSION?
It’s ironic that when I’d go off on rants about the Marine Corps, goofballs in the gym, bad drivers, politics, ham fisted camera operators, pro sports
(the list is virtually endless) Bryan would often say, ‘dad, you otta (ought to) write a book’. Well Big Man, I’m finally writing a book (of sorts) about someone who I hold near and dear to my heart.
One key to successfully moving forward is to take my sorrow and my frustration and turn it into productive work in maintaining a lasting memory of my son.
I want Bryan’s love and passion to extend far beyond his physical life and ours. One way that we’ve done that is the scholarship that we’ve established at LSU. I’ll talk about it in detail later in this story
Not a day goes by that I don't think about Bryan. As far as I’m concerned, it will and should always be like this. If I didn’t think about my son and
his lasting impact on my life, frankly I would think something was wrong with me.
Throughout the story I will refer to Bryan by several nicknames that we used for him over the years and that he chose as a moniker for himself. Perhaps his favorite moniker was his simple email signature, “B”.
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B
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Angela referred to Bryan as "Bo", a name she picked up from an American
Idol contestant, Bo Bice in season 4 in 2009. Years ago, in its first couple of seasons, we watched American Idol together as a family. Angela LOVED American Idol, one of her favorite performers was Bo Bice, as I recall, he was in the top (10) in season 4, 2009. I can recall going to one of the American Idol tour concerts in Texas. Specifically I went along as the driver and Angela and Bryan went to the concert. There is another funny story or two tied into that that I may tell later in the book….
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Additionally, I used to call him, Superman, The Great One, and Maestro. To me, Bryan is all of these things. The fact that Bryan chose ‘B’ as his moniker speaks to his simplicity and humility. He is indeed a very low maintenance individual. I chose to call him all of the superlatives above because I wanted to build his self-confidence. When he was a pre-teen and teenager, I was not certain that he knew the greatness within him. As he matured, it became evident to me that he realized or at least started to realize the true greatness and capability that he possessed.
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COLAGE OF THE MONIKERS OF BRYAN'S NICKNAMES
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So, as you can imagine, I have very fond memories of Bryan as a child. It
is so neat to be able to interact with my grandson, Daniel, he reminds the
family so much of Bryan.
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He has so many mannerism like Bo. He is, like Bryan is intelligent and a gentle soul. He is, even at seven years old, incredibly gracious and kind. I see Daniel, as Bryan, virtually never getting into trouble. He is, as Bryan was, just that type of person.
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This photo captures Bryan’s persona. His facial expression shows his gracious, sensitive personality.
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Meet Our Family
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Virtually every story spawns another story, at some point in this book, I’ll
interject the story of Angela’s birth. It’s both pertinent and funny.
Shortly after his birth, Bryan was Med evac’d to Desert Hospital for a couple
of birth related issues. By the grace of God, he was completely delivered!
I recall the day that Bryan walked onto the playground at Santa Margarita
Elementary school on Camp Pendleton, CA. He walked to the far end of the
playground and sort of hung out along the fence. He was very shy and
reserved. It’s funny to look back and see that the same relatively shy,
reclusive demure individual that he was at five years old, he would be,
relatively speaking, the rest of his life.
I recall Ms. Haynes visiting us while we were stationed in Hawaii. We were
there from 1991 to 1995. The visit was late 1992 or 1993. Bryan was not
yet walking at about two year’s old because someone (bold/italicized) would
carry him everywhere that they went. We owe Bryan’s finally learning to
walk at close to two years old to Ms. Haynes. Thanks Ms. Haynes.
As a child, Bryan wanted to be a monster truck driver, his favorite truck
was Grave Digger and his favorite driver was Dennis Anderson. I regret that
I never took the opportunity, while we were in North Carolina, at Camp
Lejeune to visit Kill Devil Hills, the home of Dennis Anderson. That’s one
of things that I kept saying that we would go but never did.
We did go to quite a few Monster Truck shows over the years. I have some
video of one or two of the shows. Perhaps Bryan’s second favorite was Tom
Mentz. One of the teaching moments I shared with Bryan was from an interview
that Tom Mentz had where he answered the question, how did you win the
monster truck championship (of a particular year)? His answer was “I had a
plan and I stuck with it”…
This is the story of Bryan’s life but I cannot tell his story without
telling the story of our family, as our family is inextricably tied to each
other. Bryan was born in 29 Palms, CA, which I always called “The Stumps.”
I never could figure why, but Susie liked 29 Palms a great deal. Perhaps it
was the 110 degree heat (in the shade) or the sand as far as the eye could
see. In reality, it was quite scenic and had a rugged allure to it.
PICTURE OF 29 PALMS
This gives me the opportunity to digress (you’ll find that I’ll do that a
lot as we move throughout this story). I moved from Camp Lejeune to 29 Palms
before Susie and Jennifer because Susie was not in a condition to drive. She
was VERY pregnant with Bryan at the time. So we shipped the car to 29 Palms
and she flew with Jennifer out to California. When I picked them up from
LAX, I remember seeing Susie on the escalator and I thought to myself, “boy,
are we having twins?” I’ll go on the record and say that I know that I’ll
pay for that one later.
We moved from 29 Palms to Hawaii where we were stationed at Kaneohe Bay Air
Station. That was the most beautiful duty station from a natural beauty
standpoint in my time in the Marine Corps. We lived in Hawaii from
1991-1995. Doodle (aka Angela) was born there in 1993.
Another side-bar, quick story (as I previously promised)… By design, we did
not know the gender of either Bryan or Angela when they were born. Susie
and I both had a sense that Bryan was a boy and of course we were right.
Well… I had in my head that Angela was going to be a boy. So much so that I
was certain that while in the delivery room, I overheard the nurses say, one
to another that the baby (Angela) was going to be a boy.
When Angela was delivered, I recall looking at Dr. Pryor (FACT CHECK name)
after he said that it’s a girl’ and asking him if he was ‘sure’… Cooley
and without flinching, he said to me, the delirious dad, “Unless they’ve
changed the plumbing, it’s a girl”. My guess is that I’m not the first
delirious dad that asked a very ‘off the wall’ question.
PICTURE: Bryan holding Angela in the rocking chair
Check out this cool picture of my reenlistment in 1992 (?) yep, that little
guy in my arms in Bryan!!
From Hawaii, we moved back to 29 Palms (YEARS) and subsequently the place
where Susie and I had met years earlier, Camp Lejeune (2000-2004). From Camp
Lejeune, we moved to Okinawa (2004-2007). Bryan was very proud of his time
in Okinawa, we’ll share a lot of stories about each location as we go along
but I can say that Bryan was particularly fond and proud of Okinawa. We
moved from Okinawa to New Orleans in 2007 and have been here ever since.