BATTLE OF CARLOS BROWN
JUNIOR GABRIELLE BROWN MEMORALIZES FATHER THROUGH TATTOO On October 9, 2017, junior Gabrielle Brown received the devastating news of her father’s passing. “He passed away from a heart attack [the end of the first semester] my freshman year,” Brown said. “It was all of a sudden. It was really, really tough.” Upon learning the information about her father Brown lost more than her father. According to Brown, she lost her best friend, the person she could always turn to and rely on. “He definitely was one of my best friends. He was the person I always went to for everything,” Brown said. “He was a really good man, he always came whenever I called him, doesn’t matter if he was busy or not. If I called him, he would definitely be on his way.” Losing such an important person in her life left a toll on her, resulting in absent school days and a hard beginning of the basketball season. “[His passing] was right when [school] basketball season was happening, and try-outs were starting,” Brown said. “I missed quite a bit of school because of it, and it’s still really rough [now], I still haven’t fully gotten over [his death] because he was my dad. He was always there for me whenever I needed him.” Brown’s family remembers him as a family man. Who was always there for his children when they needed him and for his love of his favorite band, ‘Rage Against The Machine’. “[The tattoo is of] my dad’s favorite band, Rage Against The Machine. It’s their second album cover (The Battle of Los Angeles),” Brown said. “It’s just a man with his arm straight up. [On it ], it has his date of birth, date of death and his name.”
In the time of pain and sorrow, her family came together to help one another with the grieving process. “My mom, brother and I all have the same tattoo. Even though my mom and my dad weren’t together, she still got the tattoo with us,” Brown said. “She told us ‘I was with your dad for a long time and just because we didn’t get married and we weren’t together doesn’t mean I didn’t love him and we weren’t friends.” A tattoo is more than ink forever stuck on a person’s body, a tattoo can be a memoral to an important person or event in ones’s life. “It’s remembrance. Just seeing it [reminds me of him],” Brown said. “The tattoo itself is on my back so it’s kind of hard to see sometimes but when I turn in the mirror and I look at it, it reminds me a lot of him and just brings back happy memories I’ve had.” Three years have passed since the death of her father, but he is far from forgotten. Brown thinks back to who he was in her life and how he continues to push her in his death. “He really pushed me to do the things I love,” Brown said. “He really supported me and my brother with everything we did, he helped me the best he could with my academics he helped me get tutors if I need one.” The lost of a beloved family member is a tradgey but for students such as Gabrielle Brown having her family come together can help. Story and Photo by Kathryn Collins.
“IT’S REMEMBERANCE. JUST SEEING IT [REMINDS ME OF HIM].”
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THE ORB
