“It’s something that’s very important to me,” she said. “In your last days, if you can help somebody, what a tribute that would be.”
She never imagined that that would become her son Thomas’s parting legacy. Thomas became an organ donor hero after a motorcycle accident took his life on April 16, 2024. He was 37.
Thomas had served several tours in Korea, Afghanistan and Iraq before being honorably discharged from the U.S. Army because of his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “He came home a different person than when he went in (to the armed forces),” Brenda said.
While Thomas had struggled with attention-deficit disorder (ADD) and bipolar disorder from a young age and struggled with friends and relationships, there were bright spots in his life, too. He was a national roller skating champion and loved music and singing.
“He was really charismatic and good looking,” Brenda said. “The girls loved him—he would walk into a place and turn heads. He was infectious—always full of life and energy and fun.”
Thomas had never been a motorcycle enthusiast throughout his life, but his dad was, Brenda said. While his dad had never owned a motorcycle, he was a Harley-Davidson enthusiast. After his dad died, Thomas’s mission was to make his dad proud by owning a Harley, she said.
His crash happened while Brenda was out of town driving her truck. He was driving his motorcycle alone and was found in a field at 1:30 a.m. When Brenda received the call that her son had been in a serious accident, her trucking company rented her a car to come back home. At the hospital, she eventually learned that Thomas was brain dead.
In the midst of her grief, Brenda was happy to learn he would be able to donate several of his organs. “I know that he would want to help whoever he could,” she said. “I was glad he chose that path. To know that he’s going to live on makes me happy.”
About a month after losing Thomas, Brenda wrote a letter to his organ recipients, but didn’t send it. She hopes to eventually meet some of the recipients and introduce them to Thomas’s son, who is now 11.
“He loved being a dad, and the longer he was a single father, the closer he got to his son,” whose name is also Thomas, she said. “I can’t even imagine what it would mean to Thomas to meet his father’s organ recipients.”