In Honor of Brittany Cullen
Donation protected
The phone rings in the middle of the night, and you’re jolted into the expectation of bad news. The instant dread is overwhelming. Then, you learn the most incomprehensible news. A beautiful 30-year old young lady has passed from this world into the heavenly host. Shock takes over. Disbelief haunts every minute of every hour of what becomes eternity if not longer. It’s a sucker-punch to the gut, and you just can’t recover from the news. She’s gone. And you can’t catch your breathe.
That’s the time all the familiar sayings flow. She was so young. Only the good die young. No parent should survive a child. And they’re all true.
Brittany Cullen was young. A mother of two strikingly adorable 2 and a half year old twin girls. A beloved daughter. Friend. Colleague. And so much more to so many people. She was significant and important and vital to the world she touched. She gave more than most and expected far less in return. She only knew how to strive every day to provide for the good of the world around her. And she succeeded. Well.
Though I can’t speak a lot to her personal life, I can honor her life at PDM. To say she will be missed could not possibly put her reality at PDM into perspective. Brittany never gave up. No matter the travail, she pushed on, persevered. Brittany’s enormous heart of care and concern blessed PDM in ways I cannot adequately describe. She was never without the willingness to help, to give “it” her all. Her personal dedication to doing the best for clients and her colleagues was remarkable. And it showed.
Brittany was kind and funny and outgoing. So many adjectives describe her. None is more valuable than she was positive influence in our lives. And will remain so.
As I write this, tears well up not for her passing into the peace of her God but for memories that make me smile at the same time I wipe my eyes and for those two little girls. As for memories, I remember her early days, if not her first day, as a 16-year old high school kid who was doing an internship, so full of life and spirit. For those cherubs she leaves behind, my heart breaks that they will never truly know the wonder of their mother, not like those who grew up with her and loved her for the spirit of her very being.
That spirit. It was Brittany. It emanated from her. Now as we grieve, we hang on to that spirit, celebrate that spirit, shed tears into that spirit as redemption for our sorrow, and heal from the strength of that spirit that will be her legacy. Her past which becomes her future. Her footprint. Her life print. We have the great honor of remembering that young 16 year old who blossomed into so much, and from her spirit we have the privilege of garnering strength and solace.
Rest well, young Brittany, in the peace of another Spirit with whom you reunite as you pass into His heavenly host.
That’s the time all the familiar sayings flow. She was so young. Only the good die young. No parent should survive a child. And they’re all true.
Brittany Cullen was young. A mother of two strikingly adorable 2 and a half year old twin girls. A beloved daughter. Friend. Colleague. And so much more to so many people. She was significant and important and vital to the world she touched. She gave more than most and expected far less in return. She only knew how to strive every day to provide for the good of the world around her. And she succeeded. Well.
Though I can’t speak a lot to her personal life, I can honor her life at PDM. To say she will be missed could not possibly put her reality at PDM into perspective. Brittany never gave up. No matter the travail, she pushed on, persevered. Brittany’s enormous heart of care and concern blessed PDM in ways I cannot adequately describe. She was never without the willingness to help, to give “it” her all. Her personal dedication to doing the best for clients and her colleagues was remarkable. And it showed.
Brittany was kind and funny and outgoing. So many adjectives describe her. None is more valuable than she was positive influence in our lives. And will remain so.
As I write this, tears well up not for her passing into the peace of her God but for memories that make me smile at the same time I wipe my eyes and for those two little girls. As for memories, I remember her early days, if not her first day, as a 16-year old high school kid who was doing an internship, so full of life and spirit. For those cherubs she leaves behind, my heart breaks that they will never truly know the wonder of their mother, not like those who grew up with her and loved her for the spirit of her very being.
That spirit. It was Brittany. It emanated from her. Now as we grieve, we hang on to that spirit, celebrate that spirit, shed tears into that spirit as redemption for our sorrow, and heal from the strength of that spirit that will be her legacy. Her past which becomes her future. Her footprint. Her life print. We have the great honor of remembering that young 16 year old who blossomed into so much, and from her spirit we have the privilege of garnering strength and solace.
Rest well, young Brittany, in the peace of another Spirit with whom you reunite as you pass into His heavenly host.
Organizer and beneficiary
Troy Harding
Organizer
Sunset Hills, MO
Donna Cullen
Beneficiary