Former Riverside Brookfield student's memory to be honored with tree planting Wednesday

RIVERSIDE – Every parent lives in fear of the call.

Michelle and Kevin Brannick of Riverside got a call Jan. 17 when authorities reported to them their 18-year-old son, Yeats Brannick, was killed in an auto accident outside Reno, Nev.

Riverside Brookfield High School and members of the Riverside community will honor Yeats Brannick’s memory by planting a tree in his honor at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

The burr oak, donated by Shirley and Matt Hilzinger, will be planted in front of the school.

Yeats Brannick was two months short of his 19th birthday when he and some friends decided to take a road trip to visit a college in California. Brannick was studying sustainable agriculture at Triton College, where he also was an agricultural assistant. He was thinking of changing his field of study to sustainable urban environments, his father said.

Yeats Brannick and three friends, Simonas Vanagas, 18, of Riverside, a 17-year-old Riverside girl and 18-year-old Matthew Pioch, formerly of Riverside, were driving on Interstate 80 near Fernley, Nev., at about 5:10 a.m. when the 2001 Volkswagen, driven by Vanagas, left the road and crashed, ejecting Brannick and the 17-year-old girl, who received back injuries.

It was about 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 17, and Michelle Brannick, a naturopathic physician and chiropractor, received the call at her Brannick Clinic of Natural Medicine, 3200 S. Harlem Ave.

“I got a call from a social worker in Reno, Nevada, saying your son has been in an serious car accident,” Michelle Brannick said. “I said right then and there, ‘is he alive?’ and she said ‘yes, but it’s very serious.’”

Michelle Brannick asked the social worker to call her husband and quickly headed for home.

“All she would say is he was in a serious accident and I said who can I talk to,” Kevin Brannick said. “A nurse called me and said it’s grim. I called Michelle and said we have to go to Reno.”

As Kevin Brannick brought the dog they had gotten for Yeats just two days before to a friend to take care of, the hospital called and informed him Yeats Brannick was gone.

Kevin Brannick said he was overcome by a numbing sense of responsibility upon word of his son’s death; that things needed to be done and done quickly. On his way home he stopped at Ivins Moravacek Funeral Home.

“They said they would take care of everything,” he said.

The Brannicks, along with their other son, Brendan, got on the next flight for Reno.

They first went to the hospital to meet the social worker. The officer who filled out the accident report was there and told them alcohol was not a factor in the accident.

After making all the other necessary arrangements, they returned home the following day. Six days later, the community came to the funeral home to bid Yeats Brannick goodbye.

The outpouring of kindness from the community took the Brannicks by surprise.

“You would not believe the support we got from the community,” Michelle Brannick said. “We came home that night and there was a hot meal waiting at the door,” she said.

At the wake, a continuous stream of people from all walks and ages came through for six hours, Kevin Brannick said.

“One girl wrote: ‘I moved here in ninth grade and this kid came up and started a conversation with me and took care of me from then on,’” Kevin Brannick said.

Still, the grief remains.

“I cry all the time, Kevin writes all the time,” Michelle Brannick said. “It changes you a lot. It hits you when everyone leaves. It’s hard to be home. I didn’t want to live [at the house] anymore.”

Despite the tragedy of losing their son, the Brannicks still rejoice in the life of Brendan, now a sophomore at RB.

“Brendan is an amazingly joyful thing for me,” Kevin Brannick said. “When I get really down, I think of Brendan.”

They also have the memory of Yeats Brannick, a selfless kid, very much of a free spirit.

“He was kind of funny, too, because he was awkward,” Kevin Brannick said. “He was kind of like Kramer [a character on the TV show ‘Seinfeld’]. He was very ethereal.”

And, he was great on a skateboard.

Walk up to the front door of the Brannick home and Yeats’ skateboard can be found leaning against the wall, waiting for another wild ride.