The Life of Bryan

I dedicate this story to my late son, Bryan and to my buddy Gary, who I believe was trying to warn me (from the other side) of Bryan’s impending doom.

Bryan was the youngest of my three sons. He died rather suddenly at age 23 from a very rare medical condition called “Budd-Chiari syndrome”. We had know idea that Bryan inherited broken genes from dear old mom and especially dad. As it turns out, one specific gene named MTHFR was the culprit. I unfortunately did not know that both copies of my MTHFR genes were defective. Only one copy was bad in my wife’s genes. Fortunately my other two sons were not impacted. It was just luck of the draw that screwed Bryan from birth.

The MTHFR gene is directly responsible for the production of “Protein S”. Protein S one of the crucial components required for proper blood clotting. There is a chemical chain reaction that triggers blood clotting that involves 5 different chemicals. Protein S is the one right in the middle. A normal person has a Protein S level of 60%. 60% of what, I’m not sure. My Protein S level is 30%, half of what is normal. Fortunately, with all of the injuries that I had, it was never and issue and that is something you would never get tested for as a routine checkup. Bryan’s Protein S level was a mere 5%. Bryan never had an serious injuries (or symptoms) to indicate blood clotting issues.

Budd-Chairi syndrome was named after the 2 doctors who 1^st discovered/documented this sneaky little disaster from within. Bryan developed a blood clot in the portal vein leading to his liver. As it grew slowly, it cut off the blood flow causing cirrhosis of the liver. This was likely over a 12-18 month period before the 1^st symptoms appeared. We lost Bryan 6 weeks later. He endured 30 days in ICU and had 5 surgeries in 8 days. They were actually getting ready to move him out of ICU when our maker finally pulled his ace out of the hat. That ace was the limitations to modern medicine. Your liver is crucial for just about every aspect of your body’s health. The doctors were giving Bryan heparin to thin out his blood. However, the long term use of heparin has known problems. They tried several alternatives, but nothing worked. He ended up with Antiphospholipid Anti-body syndrome that destroyed the platelet system in his blood. After all that he went through, he died from cardiac arrest.

Bryan was (is) an angel. He never got into trouble. He was always willing to help and never expected anything in return. He was a very good artist and was exceptionally gifted working with computers. He had been working with computers since the age of 6 and had his own computer by the age of 12. He upgraded to Windows 95 six months before I did and he was my personal Windows consultant there after. And I have been in the IT industry for 33 years.

Did I forget to mention how cute he was……

I’m not sure why our maker was so intent on repossessing Bryan, but I’m sure he has his mysterious reasons. I suspect Bryan was at the top of his list for those saved from the raptures that are no doubt in progress. He has the purest sole that I could imagine. I often question why I have literally escaped death so many times. We’re talking serious head injuries, motorcycle accidents, touched by lightning, and getting run over by a bus! I guess strange things happens to you when you ‘miss your departure’ too many times.

My paranormal experiences began when an old buddy of mine committed suicide. We had moved apart over the years and he divorced his wife as well. Gary was a loyal friend and like Bryan, always willing help. Gary was going through some tough times and I really felt bad that I was not there to help. On the day of his wake, that morning I went outside to get the paper like I always do, I opened the door and here was this white dove on the last step of my front porch looking right at me. I had not seen any white doves before in the area, but didn’t think much about it. However, when I walked directly towards it, it never moved! I had to walk around it. It turned and watched me as I walked over and grabbed the paper. I had to walk around it again and it turned around as I went by. As I went back inside, I paused before closing the door. I looked at the dove and we had this really strange eye contact for just a second. I have no doubt it was Gary and he wanted to make sure that I was going to be at his wake. I think the white dove was symbolic that he was at peace now. After that, I have never seen any white doves around the area again. Stupid me, I did not realize what was going on and missed my chance to be enlightened by whatever I just encountered.

At that time, Bryan was attending Metro State college in Denver and living with this two older brothers downtown. We had only been living in our house for a few years and it was brand new construction. Not too long after Gary’s wake, we started having some unusual things happening. I’m not sure which happened 1^st. We had two separate series of events. One revolved around our doorbell and the other around the smoke alarms.

I believe that it was the doorbell that was the 1^st thing. It began ~2:30 am one morning when all of a sudden, it was as if someone was pressing ‘and holding’ the front doorbell. I heard the ding, but instead of the follow up dong, it was buzzzzzzzzzz. The noise from the solenoid being energized. As if the button was stuck. Since it was 2am, I merely disconnected one of the wires and was going to check it out in the morning. Later that morning, I reconnected the wire and it was working fine. I took apart the button figuring that a bug or something got into the contacts. The contacts were clean and the button was only 3 years old. I replaced the button anyway since it was cheap. Sometime later, it happened again, only at 5:30 am this time. This time I replaced the entire doorbell system with a wireless version. I assumed that somehow the low voltage wiring going to the doorbell was getting pinched/shorted somewhere. It never happened again after that.

Next was the smoke alarms. Two or three times the smoke alarms would go off in the middle of the night. They would beep for maybe 15-30 seconds and then stop. I replaced all of the batteries and the last time it happened, is when the oddest thing occurred. In prior incidents, I would get up and check out the house obviously. But this time (and the last time it ever happened), as I was going down the stairs to the basement, I turned on the light. The door at the bottom of the stairs to the basement was closed. When I turned on the light, I saw this white mist/cloud like thing that was ~2 foot in diameter at the bottom of the stairs. I stopped in my tracks and the mist came up the stairs, around/through me. I did not feel any emotions nor did I have any sensation that something touched me in anyway. However, as soon as the entity went by me and passed the smoke alarm just behind me, the alarm went silent. And to this day, it has never happened again.

It wasn’t too long after that is when Bryan dropped out of school and eventually moved back home. We knew something was wrong, but I don’t think even he knew how sick he was. We tried to get him go to the doctor, but he was reluctant. We waited to long and was not insistent enough. By the time he knew he had to go…..it was far to late.

My conclusion is that Gary or maybe a deceased relative was trying to warn me about Bryan’s condition. Either way, I wish to thank whoever it was out there that tried to warn me. All the warning signs were there, but I did not associate them to Bryan. After his death, we have not had a hint of any paranormal activity. We are hoping that someday Bryan will let us know that he is OK and hopefully doing God’s work somewhere. We were truly blessed to have him in our life & miss him every minute of every day.

Rest in Peace my beautiful Angel

Bryan Anthony Benham

1986-2010