Mom is also an author.
Posted on 03/19/2005 12:01:46 AM PST by tang-soo
Neb. Prodigy, 14, Dies in Apparent Suicide
By JOE RUFF : Associated Press Writer Mar 18, 2005 : 8:04 pm ET
OMAHA, Neb. -- A musical prodigy who completed high school at age 10 apparently killed himself at 14, authorities said.
Brandenn E. Bremmer, who taught himself how to read at 18 months and began playing the piano at 3, was found dead Tuesday at his home in southwest Nebraska with a gunshot wound to the head, sheriff's officials said.
Patricia Bremmer said her son showed no signs of depression, had just finished the art for the cover of a second CD of his music, and had plans for Wednesday. She did not disclose details of how he was found.
"We're rationalizing now," she said. "He had this excessive need to help people and teach people. ... He was so connected with the spiritual world, we felt he could hear people's needs and desires and their cries. We just felt like something touched him that day and he knew he had to leave" so his organs could be donated.
She said Brandenn's kidneys went to two people, his liver to a 22-month old and his heart to an 11-year-old boy.
Brandenn had decided in December he wanted to be an anesthesiologist, his mother said. He started taking a biology class at Mid-Plains Community College in North Platte, where he had also taken courses in 2001. She said he had planned to eventually attend the University of Nebraska.
Reached at home late Friday afternoon, Perkins County Sheriff James D. Brueggeman said the investigation was ongoing and declined to comment.
David Wohl, one of Brandenn's professors at Colorado State University at Fort Collins, Colo., where he had been taking classes and lessons since age 11, said Friday he was shocked to learn of Brandenn's apparent suicide.
Wohl, who last saw Brandenn in December, recalled him as an unpretentious young man who had an easy smile. "He wasn't just talented, he was just a really nice young man," Wohl said.
Brandenn was home-schooled through high school and completed his junior and senior years in seven months. For his high school graduation photo, Brandenn darkened his hair, wore round wire-rimmed glasses, and threw on a red cape to look like one of his favorite characters -- Harry Potter.
Like most kids at that age, he loved cartoons, playing video games and going swimming. But he also loved playing the piano and began taking independent study classes at CSU because he was interested in the school's music department.
I wonder about people in the midst of such a sad time, even talking to reporters.
There are many ways to encourage a child's curiosity without educating them beyond their emotional maturity.
This is a dangerous route to take and serves no purpose other than, as you say, bragging rights for the parents.
Okay, this kid did NOT have anything close to a normal childhood! I think it's a miracle he could function socially at all - my bet is that he was an emotional train wreck. Can you imagine him trying to interact with other 14-year old boys? He was probably teased and bullied big-time.
It appears this poor lad was on the wrong track. He was likely connected to the wrong spiritual world, and it may have proved fatal.
Now THAT is CREEPY!
Agreed....mom is trying to find a little piece of light in such a dark tradegy....My heart breaks for people that commit suicide...the pain they go through....so sad
My wife and I were sitting in a Thai restaurant next to a nice young couple with a beautiful baby in a baby carrier. We told them they had a beautiful baby. They left and a threesome sat down at the same table bringing another baby in a carrier. We told them how the people who had just left also had a little baby with them. This mother looked at us and with complete authority said (dead serious), "Well that other baby could not have been as beautiful as mine." (Trophy baby?)
Actually, my wife and I later laughed privately, agreeing we thought the first baby was more beautiful.
SYSTEM OVERLOAD
Some good comes out of a sorrowful situatiion.
The problem is often that you can't hold these kids back. They teach themselves, watch an older sibling and learn - they find a way. Of course, some parents push way too hard, brag too much and complicate the situation.
I have been around a number of extremely gifted kids in the homeschooling community, and except for those with moms or dads who are nuts, they are much better off being allowed to pursue their interests as homeschoolers. On the other hand, I have seen very gifted kids in public school get frustrated with the system and tune out or quit.
Ten year old children ought not be charged with saving thousands of lives. Their own lives ought to be enriched according to their emotional maturity.
The statistical odds are such that eventually the homeschool community was going to lose a child to suicide.
Aren't there each year, hundreds of public school kids that commit suicide?
If you run the numbers I'd be willing to bet that there are fewer homeschoolers with children committing suicide than the public sector has.
Media on the other hand wants to paint homeschoolers in negative light, thus the story makes headlines unlike the public school incidents.
They should not be worrying about all the world's problems but being guided towards seeing all the beauty in the world.
Guiding them towards things they can do in their own world, visiting nursing homes, or visiting a shut in with mom and or dad. Small things that show them they make a difference but aren't responsible for changing the plight of others.
Donahue said.....well you don't want him to grow up being a gas station attendant.
The mom said.....better a gas station attendant and alive.
I have never ever forgotten that mother's simple statement.
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