"I had a FUNeral for my husband with bouncy castle, his favourite food and favours"
- 26 days ago
A widow held a "FUNeral" to celebrate her husband's life - complete with a bouncy castle, his favourite food and 'party bags' for guests to take home.
Katie Young, 40, suddenly lost her husband, Brandon, 39, a shop owner, after he suffered a stroke on May 4 and passed away a few weeks later on May 17.
The couple had three children together - Eleanor, 12, Clyde, 10, and Ingrid, eight - and Katie didn't want them to have "horrible memories" of their dad's send off.
Instead of holding a traditional service and wake, Katie set out to make it a FUNeral - ensuring the day was a celebration of Brandon's life with 500 guests.
She organised bouncy castles, Brandon's favourite food - dips and chips - as well as his artwork and his record collection as party bags for people to take home and remember him.
Katie, a shop owner, from Gilbert, Arizona, US, said: "Every time I started thinking about planning traditional funeral I did not want to do it.
"I was thinking about my children and how the day would be and it felt so wrong.
"All we were going to do was have these horrible memories. It didn't feel true to Brandon."
Katie and Brandon - who was a friend's roommate - met in 2007 when she was over at his house watching a film with her pal.
She was instantly attracted to his "curly hair" and the couple bonded over their love of music.
She said: "He loved to tell the story about how we met - that I was waiting for him in his bed when he came home and he wasn't wrong.
"I was friends with his roommate - a group of us went to his house.
"He had the master room and we set up a projector in his room to watch a movie."
In March 2008, Katie and Brandon tied the knot in a ceremony surrounded by their closet friends and family.
Katie said: "I have so many happy memories of Brandon, we loved to cook together and we would always cook different things.
"I would follow a recipe and he would make things up - he taught me to have fun in the kitchen.
"Some of my favourite memories are of us in the hospital after our kids were born - it felt like a sacred time."
In May 2024, Brandon had a hemorrhagic stroke, as a result of extremely high blood pressure and he passed away in hospital a few weeks later on May 17.
When thinking about his funeral, Katie was adamant she wanted to hold a celebration that Brandon would have enjoyed.
Katie said the day was "perfect" and when she looked over at their children and they all had smiles on their faces.
She said: "The best part of the funeral was that the children had a smile on their face.
"They will only have the happiest memories from their dad's funeral, instead of it being traumatic.
"Brandon loved being a dad more than anything on earth - he would have been happy that his kids were happy."
Katie Young, 40, suddenly lost her husband, Brandon, 39, a shop owner, after he suffered a stroke on May 4 and passed away a few weeks later on May 17.
The couple had three children together - Eleanor, 12, Clyde, 10, and Ingrid, eight - and Katie didn't want them to have "horrible memories" of their dad's send off.
Instead of holding a traditional service and wake, Katie set out to make it a FUNeral - ensuring the day was a celebration of Brandon's life with 500 guests.
She organised bouncy castles, Brandon's favourite food - dips and chips - as well as his artwork and his record collection as party bags for people to take home and remember him.
Katie, a shop owner, from Gilbert, Arizona, US, said: "Every time I started thinking about planning traditional funeral I did not want to do it.
"I was thinking about my children and how the day would be and it felt so wrong.
"All we were going to do was have these horrible memories. It didn't feel true to Brandon."
Katie and Brandon - who was a friend's roommate - met in 2007 when she was over at his house watching a film with her pal.
She was instantly attracted to his "curly hair" and the couple bonded over their love of music.
She said: "He loved to tell the story about how we met - that I was waiting for him in his bed when he came home and he wasn't wrong.
"I was friends with his roommate - a group of us went to his house.
"He had the master room and we set up a projector in his room to watch a movie."
In March 2008, Katie and Brandon tied the knot in a ceremony surrounded by their closet friends and family.
Katie said: "I have so many happy memories of Brandon, we loved to cook together and we would always cook different things.
"I would follow a recipe and he would make things up - he taught me to have fun in the kitchen.
"Some of my favourite memories are of us in the hospital after our kids were born - it felt like a sacred time."
In May 2024, Brandon had a hemorrhagic stroke, as a result of extremely high blood pressure and he passed away in hospital a few weeks later on May 17.
When thinking about his funeral, Katie was adamant she wanted to hold a celebration that Brandon would have enjoyed.
Katie said the day was "perfect" and when she looked over at their children and they all had smiles on their faces.
She said: "The best part of the funeral was that the children had a smile on their face.
"They will only have the happiest memories from their dad's funeral, instead of it being traumatic.
"Brandon loved being a dad more than anything on earth - he would have been happy that his kids were happy."