Visit my brother's grave.

Andrew Dahl Start Date: Jan 26, 2018 - End Date: May 25, 2018
  • Seattle, WA, United States of America

My Travel Story

by: Andrew Dahl Start Date: Jan 26, 2018 - End Date: May 25, 2018
My name is Andrew, I live in San Antonio, TX and I would like to plant some flowers on brother's grave site and spend some time experiencing the area in which he grew up and spent most of his life, at the Tulalip Indian Reservation near Marysville, WA (just north of Seattle).

My mom was born and raised in Seattle. She met her first husband in Seattle and gave birth to her first son, my brother Brian. After she parted ways with her first husband, she met my dad while she was working at the VA hospital in Seattle. He was recently retired from the Army and they wanted to get as far away from Seattle as they could, so they moved to San Antonio. After I was born, they planted roots firmly in the ground here in Texas. That was 31 years ago and although my brother has come down to San Antonio to visit, my mom hasn't been back to Seattle for more than a couple days since then.

My brother Brian passed away in June of 2006 and it was in 2008 that I had a chance to visit his grave for the first and only time. Since 2008, I haven't been able to keep enough money in the bank to visit his grave again.

Brian was a colorful, happy and warm person who was tragically killed at the age of 34. He got into trouble with the law and with money on occasion because he would sometimes put others before himself, what some would refer to as self-destructive behavior. I prefer to call it terminal selflessness.

I want to honor his memory with a renovation of his grave that speaks to his truely vibrant outlook on life, that expresses the love in his heart, with colorful flowers that will grow all year after they take root during the rainy season. I'll go back once a year in the spring to replant the flowers.

He was married with a daughter when he died, but his wife has disappeared with the child and no one in my family has heard from her in years. So his grave site has gone unattended since shortly after he was laid to rest.

I wasn't able to attend his funeral due to financial constraints, it was a couple years before the revelation of crowdfunding so I could choose to either pay my rent or go out to Seattle for my brother's funeral. As much as it hurt me not being there, if I did go I'd have come back to Texas only to find myself homeless. So now I'm asking you to help me visit my brother's grave and give it the TLC it deserves.

Thank you for checking out my funding page, and I can never thank you enough for making it possible for me to visit my brother in Washington and honor his memory with beautiful flowers that will bloom all year.

My intention is to obtain flowers from a local nursery to transplant on his grave. I would need to stay for at least a few days to water the plants every day, in case it's not raining enough, so they can get rooted well enough to keep themselves alive for the entire year.
  • Seattle, WA, United States of America