Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Brett Forsgren




Shortly after we graduated I trekked south with a bunch of our classmates and attended Utah State University in Logan, UT.  I never changed my major but I did take a bunch of random classes that spread a 4-year degree into a 6-year process, but those 2 extra years were well worth it when I left with not only a B.S. in Computer Science, but a minor in Latin as well as a wife.

I first met my wife (Lauren) in the fall of my 4th year of school, and since she isn’t proofreading this post and can’t defend herself, I get to share my version of how we met (and leave you to wonder how much is accurate): at the time I was sharing an apartment with Ryan Crandall and we and our other roommates spent a good portion of our time playing Dance Dance Revolution in the living room (you step on arrows on a pad in time to music; sort of a precursor to Guitar Hero and the like.)  For those who haven’t played the game, you work up a sweat pretty quickly.  Our remedy to this was to open the windows for ventilation and to wear as little clothing as possible.  One day Lauren was walking by and saw a bunch of sweaty men in their underwear dancing in the living room.  She picked out the most impressive of the pack and said to herself, “mmm, that’s what I’m talking about.”  I won’t bore you with too many details, but we first met in September of 2005, were engaged in February of 2006, and married in June of 2006.  (As a funny anecdote, we were on a date in November of 2005 and after dinner she hugged me and whispered in my ear for the first time “I love you.”  Me, being exceptionally smooth, responded with “Thank you.”)

Our first two years of marriage were pretty typical with both of us going to school, working, and being flat broke.  In May of 2008 I finally graduated from USU and shortly thereafter I convinced Microsoft they wanted to hire me as a programmer and in June of 2008 we moved to Redmond, WA, just outside of Seattle.  A few months later we got 2 whippets, Leto and Dune (litter-mates.)  In the fall of 2010 we decided that our family needed to include more than dogs and we quickly found ourselves awaiting a baby boy.  Needing more space we moved out of our apartment in Redmond and into a house in Bellevue, WA just a few minutes south.  Unknown to us at the time, God had a slightly different plan for us, and we lost the baby.  Odin Vernon Forsgren (Odie) was stillborn on June 23, 2011 at 38 weeks due to a blood clot forming in a kink in the cord.  This has by far been the most difficult thing we have gone through, and it continues to be difficult.  We chose to bury him in Bountiful, UT to be near family, but struggle with it ourselves because we are still in Washington and can’t visit him as often as we would like.  I realize I’m getting older but I feel too young to own cemetery plots, let alone to have one already occupied.

Even after our loss we still felt that we needed to grow our family and in a few months we learned that Odie was going to get a baby brother.  On May 4, 2012 we welcomed Tyr Nokes Forsgren into our lives and he has been a joy to have around.  While he doesn’t make me miss Odie any less, I think it helps me appreciate the experiences that I do have, and gives me hope for having similar experiences with Odie someday.  I look forward to when Tyr gets older and I get to tell him about his big brother in heaven watching over him.

Unfortunately we won’t be able to make it to the reunion but if you haven’t found me on Facebook already, it should be pretty easy, or if you prefer email, I’m always available at brettfo@microsoft.com.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

brett! thank you for sharing your story. my heart goes out to you! we'll definitely miss you at the reunion!

Mel Eppich said...

Brett,
I will forever cherish those late night dorm parties, chain mail, burger king runs, and "pool party" at USU :) YOu have been in our thoughts and prayers. It's too bad you aren't closer so tyr and Brody could be buddies :)

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