Brian James Baldy

I am so sorry for your loss. May the words of our loving heavenly Father bring your family comfort and strength during this most difficult time as He promises to bring our loved ones back to life in a perfect world where there will be no more suffering or death (John 5:28-29 & Revelation 21:4).

I saw Brian grow up, as he and my little brother (also Bryan, with a “y”), have been best friends since they were kids. We had a relatively large age gap, and I felt like an older brother to not only Bryan, but to all of his close friends, as such. Things change, and after living in Florida for a long time, I moved back to Virginia in 2008. Ironically, though Brian was just a teenager when I left, upon my return, Bryan invited me to a party in Vienna, where I only knew him and did not recognize any of his childhood friends.

Baldy was the first to come up to me and say hello. I stood out with an awful fake tan, definitely felt out of place, and Brian gave me a big hug, said he was so happy I was back, and all I could remember was that great big smile he had. The next thing I knew, we ended up at some horrendous bar, and though it was winter, I was wearing probably a shirt with no sleeves. I say this because my ignorance made me a bit of a target – After about 10 minutes, three guys came up to me and starting, well, to be politically correct in this forum, give me a “hard” time. I was in foreign territory, looked around for some backup, but all the guys were out of my line of sight.

I look over and see Baldy (again, with that great smile on his face). He glances over at me, sees these guys hovering over me, immediately knew the situation and that smile turned into a stare. In a second, he rushed over, stood in front of all 3 guys, who were a heck of a lot bigger than both of us, told me to back up while insulating me from them, and says: “Hey, is there a problem here? That is MY BROTHER, back up!” Now, this may seem trite, but again, I was alone, these guys were not passive, and Baldy had NO backup. They all put their heads down and tried to shake his hand and apologize. He ignored them, turned to me and said “When you are with me, anytime, anywhere, nobody will ever touch you.”

THAT is something I will never forget. It is a rare thing to have loyalty like that on its own, but I am simply his good friend’s older brother, he owed nothing to me, but because of his character, strength, kind heart, and toughness, he demonstrated a lack of fear, along with incredible honor and respect to Bryan. We always felt protected around Brian, and this loss leaves a massive hole in our hearts, but gives us some incredible memories of an amazing person. RIP.
D. Vailati