Sergeant Brian J. Gaunt

While I had never really sat down with Mr Gaunt to get to know him, I had always sort of known him, you could tell he was a kind and caring man by the way his children acted even when he wasn't around, his eldest, Jake, was never too old/cool to hang out with me and my brother growing up, his daughter Grace always checked on us and made sure we were happy when we were at their house, and Avery, who I see at school every couple of days or so, always takes the time to say hi and wave back when my brother or I would see her and greet her. However before I met Brian Gaunt, or his children, I grew up with Mrs Gaunt his wife and their mother as a volunteer at my school. Whether it was middle school or Elementary school, she was always around. My brother, sister, and I grew up with Holly always around, never more than a few classrooms away. She always knew when something was off with us, and never failed to check in with us when she saw us, whether we were happy or sad. She always expected a hug, as did we, and she is to this day possibly the sweetest mother besides my own and my Aunt Jenni that I've ever met. She literally radiated Grizzly bear mom energy. I'd rarely seen her with any emotion besides excitement and happiness, but she was the most deeply earnest and honest person I knew.

At the funeral, I wasn't sure what emotions to expect from myself, I'd never really gotten to know him, and I'd only shaken his rough but gentle hands a couple of times and listened in on conversations between him and my father and a few other coworkers/friends. Always the occasional incredulous "Oh Sh*t" from someone. I more than anything hadn't expected more than a tear of sympathy for the family, but what you think might happen and reality are often different, under my mask, I was biting my lip so hard to keep the tears in, that on the way to Newberg in the Police car with my father on the way back I could still feel the imprint and the bruise. Even with trying to hold back my tears, it hadn't worked, the sight of the lacquered oak(?) coffin and the sound of the bagpipes screaming woefully released the floodgates. It didn't help when I made eye contact with Holly while I was bawling and Sobbing, but I mustered the best nod I could to her, for any sound I would have tried to make would have failed me and come out wavering. The entire way back home in the Police car with my father in the End of watch Convoy, I was chewing on a red tootsie pop, for whatever reason that and the wrapper staining my hand comes to memory, as well as the fact that so many people and Firemen and families had come to watch the procession (even passing families had stopped), brought tears to my eyes every time I looked out of the window. I cried till I couldn't anymore. Then I cried some more.

If you're reading this Holly, or any other member of the Gaunt family, Jake, Grace, and Avery, remember I love you all, and that my family has a place in our hearts for Brian.

Jackson Conley Wujcik
Family friend/Coworker's son

January 23, 2023