ABOUT BRIAN

For those of you who knew Brian, you know there were so many things that were special about him. He had a sense of humor that kept everyone who was lucky enough to spend time with him laughing constantly. If he really liked you, you could be sure he'd be insulting you every chance he got. You could also be sure for every joke he made at your expense, he made many more at his own, especially in the form of woe over his own misfortunes, of which he thought there were many. He often talked about his O'Mara luck, which was essentially a lack of any type of good fortune at all. This applied to all of life's true tragedies - the barista forgetting to make his coffee at Starbucks and forcing him to wait a whole 3 or 4 minutes for his order, turning on the TV to realize Hitch had JUST ended, it starting to rain just as he got to Stewart for another of his precious 2-3 hour sessions of shooting hoops. Brian reveled in the fact that all of these horrors happened to him, each true injustices saved for him alone. The way these trivial occurrences were made so big through his eyes provided endless humor for all of us. Luckily (sorry Bri, but it's true), he applied the same exaggerated attitude to the highs of the day - the barista making his order for him when she saw him come in, turning the TV on to see Hitch has JUST started, the clouds parting and the sun coming out as he arrived at the Stewart basketball court. For his closest friends, I'm sure this is what you miss most about Brian - every day was an adventure full of moments that elicited either a sympathy searching "i beg" or an enthusiastic "i'm back." At every turn there was catastrophe or triumph, and for those of us he shared his adventure with, a laugh or a smile.

Brian lit up the lives of everyone he knew with his unique outlook on life and the laughter it brought forth. But he also lit up our lives with a heart of gold and a level of caring that to those of us who loved him and who he loved was always apparent. Brian had a knack for cutting you down with his good-natured jokes, but he would also be the first person to bring you back up when you needed it, for friends and family alike. For all Brian complained about, he never took for granted one thing - the people in his life. And he never missed an opportunity to spend time with those people. He wouldn't have dreamed of not going out if his friends weren't staying in as well, never wanting to miss any of the fun. And it's definitely hard to have nearly as much fun without him. But since we were all what mattered most to him, I know he'd want us to enjoy life as much as we can, even in his absence.

As has been said about Brian throughout this difficult time of his loss, he was never a spectator in life, always a participant. And that's what we want to honor with this foundation - he might've had a million bad things to say about his life, but he had a joy for it, often unbeknownst to himself, that is hard to find. That's the legacy we hope to keep alive in Brian's name. And through the many events we will hold over the years to remember Brian and keep his memory and his legacy alive, we hope to share the joy and friendship and laughter he himself shared with all of us.

With all our love and our deepest gratitude,
The O'Maras