Brittany Nichole Kasiner

I don’t know about you, but for me, when I was around Brittany or talked to her, the thing that always got me were her eyes. When I looked at her eyes there was a duality thing going on there because on the one hand Brittany’s eyes were gentle and loving and they drew you in but on the other hand I could see the wheels turning and I knew that once she drew me she might decide it was gonna be way more fun to mess with me just a little bit.

Brittany was born on February 20th 1990 and the family talked about some of those early years especially growing up with The Sherwood Gang in the Pine Castle area here in Hanford. Brittany loved that street. She loved her childhood there because each house on the block had a kid from each age group so they all grew up together, they all played together, they got in trouble there together, they all snuck into the neighbors pools together, played in the pools, fought in the pools, tried to drown each other in the pools,…you get the idea…It was just a great place where she loved growing up.

Here are some quick facts about Brittany and I think they are important to share before I move on because I don’t want to forget these.

Quick Facts

*Brittany loves the color purple.

*Never likes it when you mess with her personal space. Touching is on her terms.

*Has a ridiculous hatred for feet. Your feet, her own feet, any feet, she doesn’t like them!

Brittany grew up to be a very unique and original young lady. As we talked about her and her life I asked the family to use some words to describe Brittany.

One of the first words they used to describe Brittany was…

Genuine

You could throw out that phrase, “What you see is what you get”. She was who she was and that’s the way it was. But here’s what made her so unique. She could also blend in with anyone and be just fine. It didn’t matter who you were she was so real and had such a huge heart that it was easy to hang out with Brittany and be her friend.

In fact many of her friends have talked about how they grew up with her or went to high school together and then you graduate, people move away, your circle or friends change. No matter how much time had passed, she was the kind of person where you just pick right back up where you left off and before you knew it you were talking and laughing about the old stories and the new things going on in your life.

They also used the word…

Original

She was one of a kind. Then everyone started laughing as we talked about how Brittany had her own style and it didn’t matter if you got it or approved of it, she was going to be comfortable and be herself.

As she was growing up, Brittany had a Tweety Bird swimsuit that was red, white and blue and she wore for that for at least (3) summers! Her family would tell her, wear something else, you have other swimsuits, brand new ones, but she wanted to rock the Tweety Bird because that was her favorite.

Or how about this. How many of you ever saw Brittany dressed up or in a dress? Ok not counting prom…exactly! Even for prom, it took a team of 6 people to get her in that dress, do her hair, they burned multiple times with a curling iron. It just wasn’t a natural thing for her.

As everyone was growing up and dressing up she was still gonna do her own thing. So if there was a nice dinner where everyone was “dressed to the nines” as they say, Brittany would be there and be just fine in her “I Love Farmers” T-Shirt and her hair in a bun! Speaking of farmers, Brittany would also wear those low cut jeans when she was at work. On a tractor. Bending over to work behind the tractor! In fact, we think it might be the reason why she was getting hit on at work from time to time. We don’t know for sure, we’re still investigating, but the pants probably had something to do with it.

Brittany had all kinds of clothes hanging in the closet, some that people had bought her, some still with the tags on them.

To me it seemed like she was probably going through clothes interventions all the time…People walking up to her and crying, “Here Brittany, please take these clothes, you can’t wear sweatshirts all the time, please get help and wear this.” But she would just say, “That’s not me.”

Brittany was a proud member of the Portuguese Fraternal Society of America and the Future Farmers of America and her favorite class was Auto Shop! She also loved her Floral Class because she got to blow up balloons and ride around making deliveries.

Another word used to describe Brittany was…

Fearless

This is the word that we used to describe some of the ridiculously crazy things she would do. Like Chinese fire drills, running around cars during lunch break or any number of things that many you probably experienced at one time or another with her. Like at the river or out in the dunes at the ocean.

By the way, we know there are crazy stories out there that involve Brittany, so the family would like to offer you Amnesty. That’s right, a onetime free pass, to find Brittany’s family and fess up to all the things that you did together that they never knew about, and all will be forgiven.

Here’s an example. Like the time when Brittany’s car had burned up and one her friend’s parents had let Brittany borrow their mini-van. Brittany said to herself, “Wow this is so cool how they let me borrow their mini-van, how they trust me so much, Oooh and now that I’m thinking about it, I wonder if I go fast enough around this corner if I can get this mini-van over onto 2 wheels?” Yeah it probably went down just like that in her mind.

Or when Brittany would get together and play the game “Spoons” with her some of her friends. “Spoons” is a card game where you get a bunch of people together, you put a spoon in the center of the table, you deal your cards and then you trade cards trying to get the right number of matching cards that you need. You call out what you need and just turns into a frenzy of cards flying across the table while everyone is trying to get what you need. The game ends when someone gets the right number of matching cards and then tries to as sneaky as they can take the spoon off the table. When someone gets that spoon, the trading stops and you get points for winning the hand. Well imagine this game but their twist is that the spoon is not on the table it’s outside somewhere! So as soon as someone starts running for the door, everyone is chasing them, you’re getting bottlenecked and jammed up in the doorway, still trying to trade cards, Brittany is body slamming you into the wall or running you over. IF you make it out the door, you’re getting tripped in the flower beds or knocked down onto the grass and Brittany or whoever is losing is grabbing the spoon and chucking it across the street. So it just goes on. Or the spoon would end up in the pool. For some reason it always went back to the pool. Brittany wanted to get you in the pool and hurt you!

Another word that came to mind…

Sports

Brittany played soccer and basketball, but her real love was softball. There were so many weekends spent playing softball with her friends and team mates, trips to the coast and so many good times together. Don’t get me wrong, Brittany loved sports, but she was there because she got to spend time with you, with her friends.

Another story that was shared was how Brittany could be so competitive too. There was a time when Brittany was 10 or 11 and her friend Amanda were together after practice and they were picking up rocks in the parking lot and trying see who could throw the farthest. Then when they were both leaving Brittany was going to her mom’s car and Amanda to her parents car and they were quite a ways away from each other. So Amanda said, “I thought I wonder how far I throw a rock? I’m gonna try to throw it to Brittany but I know it’s too far, I know I’ll never be able to reach her.” So Amanda threw a rock and it flew in the air, hit the ground somewhere in front of Brittany and then took a weird couple of hops and bounced up and hit Brittany right in the mouth! She said, “Brittany was just looking at me with her hands raised as if she was saying, “look what you did…”

That weekend when they went out of town, every picture taken of Brittany showed off her swollen busted up lip.

Brittany was a huge 49ers and the S.F. Giants fan. Last year Brittany was there and watched Giants pitcher Matt Cain throw a perfect game and she was there the night that Barry Bonds hit 3 home runs in the same game! When Bonds was making his way to the plate, Brittany shouted out, “Hey Barry can you do it again?” Bonds looked back at her and pointed to the fence and then hit another home run.

Another word that could describe Brittany is…

Helpful

I’ve heard this said about Brittany so much. How Brittany was always watching out for others. She would mother hen over you if you would let her. Back in her old neighborhood on Sherwood, she was always playing football or other games with the neighborhood kids and the adults would count on Brittany being a referee in those games, she was a peacemaker. If she was riding her bike down the street and she saw outside working on something, she would stop and ask what you were doing and try to get right in there with you.

Brittany excelled in things that involved her hands and her heart! She was hands on when it came to putting up Christmas lights or putting toys together, she even put together a big scale model from Star Wars of the Millennium Falcon!

She loved little children years ago she helped her mom teach a Sunday School class for 3 and 4 year olds. She had a tender heart and wanted to get right in there with them and be a big kid. Brittany especially loved being with little brother Garth and helping him with his Jr. Sprint car races. Brittany was the pit crew and she would air up the tires, check out everything on the car to make sure he was good to go and she would get him strapped in and ready to race.

There were stories of an elderly man in the neighborhood that was suffering from Alzheimer’s. From time to time he would run away from his house and Brittany would go out to help find him. Or the time when Brittany helped her dad hitch up a travel trailer and take it out to homeless man that needed a place to stay in. She wanted to be involved and wanted to help however she could. It’s a great lesson and example to all us of how we should be looking for ways to make a difference.

Another word that was used was…

Reliable

If you needed her all you had to do was call her and she would be there. I mean she would put you above anything else she had going on, even cotton in the field, which would get into trouble because she wanted to be there in the middle of it all and not miss anything. She was reliable in the fact that you could count on Brittany to listen, you could count on her being someone you could always talk to, you could count on her saying “Hi” “How are you doing?” One friend said that if you were stuck on the side of the road out of gas or broke down, of all your friends, you could call Brittany and she would be there to help.

One final word…

Happy

Brittany loved to have fun and a great time. If she thought it was funny she was all about that. Like her special way of saying Happy Birfffday to you!

She was always smiling, loved to laugh and her laugh was very contagious. If she thought it funny she was all about that.

So here’s one last story to leave you happy and laughing.

Years ago, Brittany and Amanda were riding scooters all around the neighborhood. Well they were told that they couldn’t leave the neighborhood and they had to stay close. Not having any of that they took off on their own adventure past the middle school and at some point, Amanda was trying get off her scooter and when she did she hit the back of her ankle super hard. Now Amanda is bleeding everywhere, Brittany and her are freaking out and they did what every young person does when they’re afraid they’re gonna get caught. They went into “How are we gonna cover this up” mode. They went Mission Impossible.

So Brittany is knocking on strangers doors asking for band-aids, they’re just trying to get back to the neighborhood to the park so they can make us some story and tell their parents the accident happened at the park. I think they we’re going to actually try to stage the accident there. I mean why go home crying and bleeding when you can traumatize your family and make them run out the park and do it there.

So they get to the park, but the park is closed and the fence is locked. So you have to imagine Brittany trying to climb the fence, her pants getting stuck on the fence, she’s literally hanging upside down stuck there and then she finally fell off.

So when it was all said and done, the parents are freaking out, Amanda’s ankle needs stitches and Brittany took all the fall and all the blame for what happened.

So today we’re gathered here to thank God for the gift that we’ve had in Brittany. What a wonderful young person, who was so Genuine, Original, Fearless, loved Sports and hanging out with her friends. We honor a young girl that Helpful and willing to get involved, who was Reliable and someone that you could count on to be there for you. We will always cherish all of the memories and fun times together that we shared with such a Happy and loving friend. Brittany will always be remembered and treasured in our hearts.