Brandon George Friedrich was born on Friday, August 6, 1943 just in time for happy hour.  He shares a birthday with Lucille Ball, which makes sense because they both loved a long drag from their cigarette back in the day.

A Leo with a grumpy moon rising, as his lack of patience was second to none.  He did have a soft side for many things and people though, but didn’t like to brag.

Brandon leaves behind his “honey” Linda Lee (Ussery), children Michael Brandon, Kelly Lynn Steigler (Drew) and Christopher George Friedrich (Kelley).  Brandon’s four grandchildren: Ryan Michael, Kate Elizabeth, Cole Brandon, and Wesley John will miss him terribly, as their Grandpa adored them.  Brandon was the eldest child of the late George John Friedrich and Jane Aloha Lake Friedrich.  His beloved younger siblings and their spouses Thomas (Lee), Jeff, Greg (Lynne), Robin (Mickey), Keith, Kim (Bill) and Sandy (Reuben) along with an abundance of nieces and nephews, grand nieces and nephews made the old man brim with pride.  Grumpy also leaves behind Bernie the lovable pooch who liked to hold his hand.

Brandon was secretly always making sure everyone was doing okay.  Our appreciation was deep and we all looked up to the patriarch who was short in stature but a giant among men. He had many hobbies, a zest for life and zero patience for Sunday drivers.  “Freddy” enjoyed yelling, being a jock, fishing, showing off his calves, boating, barbecuing an excessive amount of hotdogs at one time, and advice from Warren Buffett.  He would not leave the house without his Garmin GPS, even though Linda’s iPhone was readily available.  Margaritas were his drink of choice, especially when dancing terribly at every wedding he ever went to.  Brandon fancied close-talking, looking for his glasses, hovering over hired help working on his home, Guy Harvey tee shirts, tools, googling, General Patton, sports and butter.

Grumpy also had a likening to expensive craft beer thanks to his amazing son-in-law, Drew and daughter-in-law Kelley, whom he loved, admired and revered.  He would unabashedly steal Drew’s secret stash hidden in the back of the fridge and leave the Budweisers where they belonged, idle and alone.  He couldn’t get over what smart, generous, kind people his children married.  Get togethers usually consisted of guzzling brewskis and saying how top-notch any appetizer was, for his tastebuds were quite non-judgemental.

Brandon disliked high-heels, especially worn on his spouse Linda, she hasn’t worn a shoe higher than a pair of slippers since 1969.

Brandon’s work ethic was  extraordinary, just like his lawn mowing and weed whacking skills.  Speaking of chores, he also appreciated waking his offspring up at six a.m. on the weekends while having them perform random non-essential tasks.  He gave great haircuts, and if Uncle Jeff was still with us, he would concur.

Brandon was very social and loved all his friends especially Phil and Barbara, Greg and Carol and all the gang at work.

He served his country with great pride and traveled the world with the United States Navy.  He especially liked Italy, and could not believe how delicious the pizza was there, it was like it was their specialty or something.

Grumpy delighted using certain words and phrases repeatedly, some examples being: “fabulous”, “give me a break”, “you’re wrong”, “cut it out”, “Linda!”, “good boy”, “1, 2…3!” (and if you were smart you started sprinting at “1”) “the computer is broken again”while most importantly his favorite go-to was “I love you”.  Even though his nickname does not sound like it, Grumpy was kind and loyal while his moral compass compared to few.  He loved his beautiful wife Linda more than anything in the whole world and he could not believe his good fortune having landed such a hot babe who also cooked fried southern food.  What luck!  Brandon was a phenomenal Dad and loved his children immeasurably.  He had a knack for making people (family or friend) feel better if they were going through a hardship or if they made a mistake.  He knew everyone was fallible, and admired you for admitting it.  He comforted people in his own quiet way, (except when he was yelling, that wasn’t as soothing as the former) but he got through to you either way and you were a better person for it.  He loved seeing people happy, especially his wife, children, grandchildren and his many, many dogs including: Cleo, Cappy, Rusty, Maggie, Tigger and Bernie.  He didn’t really like seeing his cat “Trouble” happy though, that’s a story for another day.  As mentioned earlier he loved his son-in-law Drew and daughter-in-law Kelley as if they were his own and also cherished his children’s friends and treasured having his tiny home filled with enormous laughter, which was quite often.

He probably didn’t know this, because he was in fact so humble, but the impact he had on what must be countless people, is most likely incalculable.  He will be missed terribly and remembered fondly.  He would want people to smile while thinking of him and not be sad.  If you’re in a pickle and you ask yourself “how would Brandon handle this?”, the world would be a much better place for sure.