Brianna Cassidy - Brianna Cassidy

Dear Rod and Mary Cassidy,

Your daughter, Brianna, was a delight and a blessing in our lives. We also grieve, both for your physical loss of her, but also for our loss of her. She left many, many people that you have never met, that she was a blessing and a joy to. To many, she was the only Christ they got to know. I praise God for godly parents like you two.

I met her when she first started coming to the Oroville Airport. Tom and I are very good friends and I spend a fair amount of time there. She had a level of maturity and inquisitive intellect that was way beyond her years. I can honestly say that we have spent hours together in conversation and work. I could tell by her actions and the way that she comported herself that she was a Christian. We spent hours while we were working, over the many months, discussing God’s plan for her life She went after everything with zest and zeal. We talked about her trips to Japan, Ecuador, etc. and going back to Tenn. to fix up the old house. She loved you both very much and could not believe her good fortune to have parents who supported her in what she believed in. She was always a bundle of energy and a human dynamo. She had a way about her that made those of us, who are old enough to be your parents, love her. There is no one that I know that she interacted with that did not love her. The Christ in her truly shone through. No parent should ever have to bury their child. It is not the way that God had meant it to be, but we live in a fallen world. We question “Why was such a godly young woman taken when so many ungodly still live their ungodly lives?” God answers us in Isaiah 57:1-2:

The righteous man perishes, and no man takes it to heart;

And devout men are taken away, while no one understands.

For the righteous man is taken away from evil,

He enters into peace;

They rest in their beds,

Each one who walked in his upright way.

God knows these are evil times. Brianna fulfilled what she needed to do, not what we wanted for her. God knows what she has done: Revelation 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord form now on!’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”

I lean on these words and trust that they are true.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

You have to trust in the Lord’s promises and believe that you two will see your daughter again. Remember the good times you had with your daughter and what a tremendous impact she had for good in this world. She has done more in the few short years that she was blessed with than most people do in a life time. The pain of your loss hurts no matter how she was taken from you. Trust in the Lord's goodness and as it says in Philippians 4:6-7 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." We truly believe in this. We will continue to pray for you. We look forward to seeing her again, in glory.

I have included some photos of one of the times Brianna was down at our farm. She was the only girl and the only youngster among a bunch of old geezers. She was a delight to us all. We all helped her all we could because of who she was. In the photos she ia riding in the back of the yellow Super Cub with the open door. She was working on an airplane at my shop, on our farm, prior to supper, when some other pilots dropped in unexpectedly, Brianna had never met the owner of the Super Cub before. After just a few minutes of getting to know her, he took her up for a ride and let her fly the $200,000 airplane. She was that type of a person. Everybody loved her, enjoyed her company, her joy for life, her work ethic, and just who she was.

I know that words can offer very little comfort. But, please take to heart that Christ used her as He has use few others to bring much joy to many.

In Christian Love,

David and Lisa Martin

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Catherine Cassidy (Grandmother)

Thank You ...for honoring your daughter. It was a privilege to have been loved by her as well as an honor to have loved her.

Sarah Lamb (Bestfriend)

There are so many memories that I have with Brianna, and there are so many wonderful things I can share about her. We became friends our first year in high school together when I asked her a few questions about cell phones (which she knew quite a bit about), and then she offered to help me with my algebra homework. Since then we shared so many things and memories with each other.

We rarely got to see each other in person because our lives had us living in different states for the majority of the time that we were friends, but every once in a while we saw each other. I remember climbing up to the top of Nevada Falls in Yosemite with Brianna, and we saw a man die right in front of our eyes--when we reached the top we both called our moms and told them that we loved them. I also remember spending new years day with her when we went polar plunging (swimming in freezing water) in Bass Lake. The mountaintops had snow on them and we both just jumped in and went swimming. I also went in an airplane for the first time with her, and she flew the plane for a while and landed it.

One thing that I always admired about Brianna was how spirited she was. She always knew what she wanted from life, and she pursued until she got what she wanted. She always knew how to speak her mind, and she was always striving to better herself. I learned a lot from her being her friend, and I think she rubbed off on me quite a bit. I am so thankful that she was a part of my life, and I will always cherish our friendship.

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