Richard Brayton - Deceased:
CLASS OF 1987
Rancocas Valley Regional High SchoolClass of 1987
Mt. holly, NJ
Richard's Story
This is Shawn, Rick’s brother. I may formally write something later. For now I am posting a story I recently wrote. There is a part with Rick in it so I thought those knew him may chuckle. Thank you for being part of Rick’s story. Each interaction he ever had made him the lovable pain in the ass that he was, lol.
“Whammied”
My sister sent me a tire iron for Christmas. My family has always found humor in adversity. Those two sentences sound like two different topics. I’ll merge them together. Just give me a second.
Let me start with my family’s humor in adversity. It may be inappropriate but the humor always dulls the pain for whatever is happening at that time. I will not apologize for it. It kind of even brings our family closer together.
For example, at my Nana’s funeral my brother Rick and I were making humorous side comments under our breath. Rick and I were sitting in the second row. In the front row were my mom and Uncle John and they were receiving guest’s condolences. One blue beehive hairdo lady walks up to my mom and uncle John and says, “I’m so sorry.”
Under my breath I say to Rick, “Is she sorry for Nana’s passing or for that hairstyle?” Rick chuckles. He then says, “Yeah… also I’m thinking what are they going to be serving for food later.” I then ponder the food situation. It had been a long day up to this point.
Some people would observe the conversation Rick and I had as disrespectful. Again this is how we cope. We cope by laughing. Gosh, I sure do miss my brother Rick. He was great in times of needing coping. He wasn’t good in a crisis but the aftermath he would make you laugh.
Another “coping” situation my family and I have dealt with is my mom’s first cousin, Nancy (not to be confused with my mom who is also named Nancy). Cousin Nancy was diagnosed with dementia… gosh in 2012? Before that?! My sister, Kelly, would know. Kelly has been great as she takes care of everything legal and medical for her. Cousin Nancy planned it out that way. It was a good plan.
Around 2014 for Christmas, Cousin Nancy went to my mom’s house. My mom gave her a gift. The following is taken from an email I just sent to my mom explaining an ongoing “coping” mechanism my brother Troy, sister Kelly, and I have regarding cousin Nancy:
“Mom,
I see you have a question. Did the original email I sent have a picture? If not, here it is attached to this email.
The picture is of a tire iron in my trunk. Kelly sent the tire iron to m...Expand for more
e for Christmas. That’s a running joke from the time you gave Cousin Nancy a Christmas present. She then told you she had one for you in the trunk of her car. When you opened the trunk there was no present. As sad as dementia is, Kelly, Troy, and I found it humorous that there was nothing for mom but expectations 😜
There was a game show in the 80s called “Press Your Luck”. A lit square at a high speed would randomly move around individual named prizes (money values, boats, trips). When you wanted the lighted square to stop, you pressed a big red button. Hope was for the lit square to stop/land on big cash and prizes. The person with the most cash and prizes at the end of the game won.
In this high speed square moving around prizes, there would be spots that would fill with a “Whammy”. If you got a Whammy they edited in a cartoon creature “Whammy” and the creature would take away all your cash and prizes.
Contestants would always say as the square was moving randomly around the board, “Big Bucks! Big Bucks! No Whammies” and then hit the stop button and say “STOP”.
My picture represents your Christmas gift from Cousin Nancy. Let me set the scene:
Mom gives Cousin Nancy a Christmas present. Touched and overwhelmed, Cousin Nancy says to mom, “Your gift is in my trunk”. As mom and Cousin Nancy walk to the car, mom ponders, “What could she have possibly have gotten me?”…. Cousin Nancy pops the trunk… “Big Bucks! Big Bucks! No Whammies! Stop!!!” … trunk opens to only reveal a “tire iron”… whammied 😉
What can I say, your kids are kookie
For those of you wondering about Cousin Nancy, never fear. Kelly moved her from New Jersey to North Carolina to be closer to her. Cousin Nancy is in a memory care facility. She has declined to the point where she is nonverbal. Cousin Nancy may not know it is Christmas time. We know. We wish her the best. She gave us the “tire iron” and brought us closer as a family.
I do not want to get bogged down in the molasses swamp that is dementia. We all know it sucks. We loved Cousin Nancy before dementia. We love her now.
I’m just going to say Cousin Nancy was a grade school teacher. Third grade to be exact. Every year we would ask her if she had any students in her class with our names. It was just fun to know. My wish is that in her mind right now she is teaching another year of third grade. She loved being a teacher. Hopefully in this class she has students named Troy, Kelly, Rick, and Shawn.
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