Bradley Edgington

Bradley Jason Edgington was born to Jason M. Edgington and Lefaye O. Edgington on December 22, 1967 in Bryan, TX. where his Dad was finishing up his MS degree at Texas A & M. U. Six weeks after his birth, he moved with his parents to Midland, TX where his Dad was employed with an oil company. He was close enough for his grandparents in San Angelo to visit often. Aunts and uncles from San Angelo, Midland, and Hobbs visited often also. Grandparents from Oklahoma were able to visit too. While in Midland, he began his first association with the “cabin” in Ruidoso, NM during the summers. Brad was taken to the Midland library to check out books from the library.

Brad’s brother, Steve, was born in Midland in 1969. In 1973, the family was transferred to Dubai, UAE where they stayed for 3 years. Brad started to school in a private American school in Dubai. While in Dubai Brad traveled with his parents to Pakistan, Iran, India, Lebanon, Cairo, Egypt, Istanbul, Turkey, and Athens, Greece.

In December, 1975, the family was transferred to Stavanger, Norway. (quite a change from the desert to snow). The family stayed in a motel for 3 months while looking for a house to rent. The boys went to a private American school in Stavanger. In Stavanger, the boys learned to ski and learned to ice skate. There was a lake near the house, and it froze over for two years in a row, and it was a great place to ice skate. There was a Norwegian library which had a good sized English section of books. Books were checked out of that library for the boys nearly every week. There was lots of walking and bike riding when the weather was good.

In 1977, the family was transferred to Lafayette, LA and the boys started school there. There was a limited exposure to their first hurricane there, but there was no damage to property there. The family was the only house on the street, and there were only a few houses behind them so there was a lot of room to run around the neighborhood.
In 1978 Dad changed jobs to go with another company in Oklahoma City. The family moved to Edmond, OK in November, 1978. The boys began school with Living Word Academy ( a Church of Christ sponsored school) and Brad stayed with that school for 1 ½ years before transferring to the public schools. Both boys played on soccer teams for two years before going on to other activities.

One of the first activities in each town was to get a library card. Each week the boys were taken to the Edmond library to check out books. A lifelong interest in reading was cultivated over the years.
In Middle School, began an interest in military which stayed with Brad the rest of his life. He began to read and collect books on military while building model ships, planes, tanks, etc.

In High School, made a decision to take Air Force ROTC for four years and enjoyed it. He spent two weeks during the last two years at a different air base with a mini basic training camp. While in High School, Brad took German for two years which came in handy a few years later.

The family attended the Edmond Church of Christ while living in Edmond. The boys were always an active part of the youth group during their time there. Their best friends were also part of the Edmond church. Each summer while in High School, Brad went on a youth mission trip with the church to Leadville, CO.

While living in Edmond, the boys were visited frequently by their grandparents in Blackwell, OK. Also there were visits from relatives in Dallas, Hobbs, San Angelo, and California. There were reunions, anniversaries, birthdays, and just get-to-gathers with all kinds of relatives while living in Edmond.

The family took ski trips at Thanksgiving for two years in Ruidoso. Then the family began to drive to Colorado for early Christmas ski trips.
For several years, two weeks were spent in the Ruidoso “cabin” in the summer. There was some hiking, fishing, and sightseeing in the area. One favorite activity was to climb a mountain that could be seen from the “cabin” and walk by an old abandoned mine.

When Brad graduated from High School in 1986, he had already made the decision to go to Oklahoma Christian College which was located 3 miles from his home. He lived on the campus for two years and then in the campus apartments for 1 ½ years. Brad had a good high school back ground with the Edmond schools and he was able to CLEP out of several hours of coursework and thus he finished OCC in 3 ½ years in December, 1989 with a degree in History.

While in OCC, Brad began working part time with a pizza shop, making and delivering pizzas in Edmond.

Brad’s Dad was transferred to Houston and the family moved to Richmond, TX in February, 1990. In March 1990 Brad signed up with a delayed enlistment for the army. He checked on the Air Force, but they wouldn’t let him choose his advanced training path, so he choose the army and they promised he could work with avionics with helicopters. While waiting for his delayed enlistment to begin, Brad worked at Pizza Hut in Rosenberg making pizzas. In October, 1990, was taken by bus to spend the night downtown Houston, before being transported to Hobby for a flight to Fort Jackson, SC to begin Basic Training with the Army. At the end of the Basic, his parents were invited to see the graduation ceremonies. This was the time period when Desert Storm in Iraq was going on. Desert Storm was over, before Brad finished the next phase of his training.

During his Basic and AIT, would contact a local Church of Christ and obtain rides each Sunday to the worship services. In the AIT training Brad was sent to Fort Gordon, GA which he finished up in May, 1991. Brad went home for a one month furlough before flying from Intercontinental to Frankfurt Germany for the next phase of his army career. Brad was allowed to ship his 1986 Ford T Bird to Germany (at Army expense), and thus he was very mobile in traveling around the Germany. Later Brad was transferred to Wiesbaden base where he spent the rest of his Germany years. The German he studied in High School was of some help while he was stationed there. About midway through his stay in Germany, he was rear ended on the Autobahn, and his T-Bird was totaled, and sold as is to another soldier. Brad bought a used 1992 BMW and when he returned back to the states, the BMW was transferred with him.

Brad was transferred back to the states to spend the rest of his time in the Army at Fort Hood. Brad had his own transportation at Fort Hood, so he could travel on his free time. Frequently he went home to Richmond, but he also traveled to Austin, Temple and Dallas. He was constantly on the hunt for military related books and military patches. He collected both of these items Brad worshiped at a congregation in Copperous Cove during his stay at Fort Hood.

Brad kept the BMW and never did sell it. (it is still in the driveway in Richmond) The night before he was discharged from the Army in 1995, someone stomped on the hood and roof of the BMW, and Brad had to get it fixed.

Brad began worshipping with the Graeber Road Church of Christ congregation in Spring 1990 and continued with that congregation from that time on till the present.

Brad tried to get on with the FBI, but that didn’t pan out. Eventually he saw an ad where Compact was hiring people and training them to build computers. This caught Brad’s eye and he signed up and was hired. The job lasted about 6 months and he was downsized, but interest in computers was kindled and he never let that interest wane from then on. He later went to work for CompUSA in sales. That lasted for about 3 years, and his knowledge about computers increased rapidly, but unfortunately he was downsized again. He then signed up for one of those Microsoft Certification schools. That course work lasted about a year, and his computer skills expanded. He also began building his own computer for the first time, but he was not able to get back into the computer industry again.

Brad joined an Army Reserve Unit in Houston. It was a chemical unit. He went on summer camp in Utah and in Southern California, decided that type of unit was not of interest him. He left the Army Reserves in August 2001. Thirty days later, 911 occurred, and that unit was one of the first units sent to Iraq. Brad decided he wanted to get back into the Army again so he checked on the Texas Army National Guard and joined a unit in Rosenberg in 2002. His unit went to Iraq, but he had already missed the training so he was not allowed to go to Iraq. Brad went on several summer camps during the next 3 years. In 2005, he was notified with orders to prepare for training at Ford Hood beginning in August 2005, and to be sent with a huge Texas unit to Kosovo to work under the UN Peace Keeping efforts. In November, 2005, his unit was deployed to Kosovo to spend most of 2006 there.

Brad returned from Kosovo in late November, 2006. In December, Brad did not feel well and his appetite decreased rapidly. In the first week in January, he went to the VA for a check up. Since he didn’t have an appointment, it took hours to see a doctor and have tests run. Brad arrived home about 6:00 PM and was here 30 minutes when he received a phone call to pack his bags and expect to stay for some time in the hospital. His parents drove him back to the ER and he checked in. The next day, he received the news that he was diagnosed with lymphocytic leukemia. The protocol was to go through 5 days of chemo each month for 8 months. This did occur, but there were two stays in the hospital in which he had infections and had to stay longer than 5 days. Brad went on maintenance chemo after August. Things rocked along until December when he came down with the shingles. That was finally over by the end of January, but then a new symptom sneaked in. Brad began having terrible headaches and began to have seizures. It wasn’t until April he was diagnosed with leukemia in the cerebral vascular fluid, and the leukemia had advanced in the base of his brain.

Brad was put into the hospital and an Ommaya Reservoir was surgically implanted into his brain at the top of his head. Some fluid was withdrawn from the reservoir, and then some chemo was inserted to replace the fluid. This treatment took care of the leukemia in his spinal column. No leukemia was ever found in the cerebral fluid again.

Brad’s desire was to become a Warrant Officer with the Guard and transfer to a computer unit in Austin. That desire was not fulfilled for him because of the leukemia. From 2007 on, his physical activities were restricted by the doctors to prevent him from becoming exposed to various infections. He could not do any work outside, so he began working for his Dad as an Administrative Assistant with J & L Resources, Inc.

The hunt was on for a donor with the right DNA to offer stem cells for a stem cell transplant. Graeber Road Church of Christ held a session one Sunday morning in 2008 for members of the congregation to volunteer to take simple swab tests of the cheeks to send off to the national data base to check for DNA. Finally in 2009 two DNA matches were found for Brad. The nearest VA Hospital that does stem cell transplant is located in Nashville. Brad was sent there for testing and preparation for the transplant. The transplant occurred in August, 2009. Everything was successful. Things looked great for several months. The donor was a 23 year old woman, but her identity was never revealed to the family or Brad. Even a checkup in Nashville in mid June, 2010 showed things were OK. Then in July, 2010 Brad was having trouble eating again. A bone marrow biopsy was taken and showed leukemia had returned again. He was put in the hospital again and an aggressive chemo treatment began. The outlook was very grim for success, but everyone was hopeful. Alas success did not occur and Brad would spend the next five months in the hospital fighting various infections that kept coming on and causing various deterioration of his physical condition.

Brad’s parents transferred him to MD Anderson in hopes something could be done there. MDA took him in, but after various testing, they said he was too physically weak and nutritional deficient to be put in a clinical trial. Brad was ushered into eternity at 9:47 AM on December 30, 2010.

He is survived by his parents Jason and Lefaye Edgington and one brother, Steve Edgington. A memorial service for Brad is scheduled for 1:00 PM at the Graeber Road Church of Christ on January 5, 2011.