Brendan David Melendez, 20
Our dear loving son, Brendan, was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Aug. 2, 1994, and suddenly left this world on July 9, 2015, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
Brendan was an extremely sensitive, thoughtful young man who was respectful and deeply concerned about the injustices of poverty, racism, materialism, and the pollution that is choking our earth. He was never arrogant or a bully, he just wanted to blend into the crowd and be treated fairly while having fun.
Brendan developed a real love for the outdoors when we lived in Bonners Ferry from 2000-2005. We moved from Salt Lake to Bonners Ferry in 2000 when he was six years old to provide on site radiology services to Boundary County. Brendan, from the first days in Bonners, loved building bonfires and fishing on the Kootenai River. He eventually became a real marksman with BB and pellet guns, which he continued to enjoy into his adulthood.
He was extremely patriotic and had high hopes of serving in the U.S. military as a Marine. Being a Marine was his life dream. He studied military history to the extent that he was a real authority on World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. We told him that he would be an excellent military analyst with his in-depth knowledge of winning strategies and the mistakes of past wars. He would put most adults to shame with his broad knowledge of military history that occurred many years before he was born.
Brendan excelled in school not because of his God-given talent, but because he would spend hours to master the subject at hand. He developed a writing style and expertise that most students would love to have; of course, this came after many hours of revision after revision. He graduated from Coeur d'Alene High in 2012 with honors and attended Spokane Community College and Eastern Washington University. In college he continued to be a dedicated student who had little time for extracurricular stuff because he wanted to learn and to prove to himself and us of how hard he was working.
After high school Brendan became a real fan of major league baseball, and was a dedicated fan of the San Francisco Giants and Seattle Mariners. We went last year to see game four of the World Series, and he was so excited to be a wild, crazy Giants fan rooting as they defeated the KC Royals. He would listen to the games on satellite radio as he studied and would keep us up to date on the league standings.
Brendan became a lifeguard at the Kroc Center in Coeur d'Alene in 2012 and continued to work part-time up to the time of his death. He was proud to be a Kroc lifeguard and felt a real loyalty to the Center. The people at the Kroc treated Brendan with great respect and he told us many times how he liked working there.
So where do we go from here? We cherish the days we had with him and thank the Lord for having given us such an incredible son. He made us better people.
The surviving members of his family are his father, Michael; his mother, Polly; brothers Cooper Darling (Kaitlin), and Alexander; and sister Mercedes; as well as numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, and maternal grandparents who also survive him.
We are very thankful to all of those friends and family who have given us emotional and spiritual support during these tearful days of grieving.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. today, July 14, at the Kroc Center, 1765 Golf Course Road in Coeur d'Alene.
English Funeral Chapel has been entrusted to handle final arrangements. Please visit Brendan's online memorial at www.englishfuneralchapel.com.