“Brittany was beautiful, smart, great at what she does, very athletic, very outgoing,” Brad Peludat said.
He says he and his big sister, Brittany Despins were inseparable up until the day a bizarre accident took her life.
“I just want to hear her tell me she me she loves me again. It’s not that I don’t know that. I just want to hear it. It’s just very tragic what happened to her,” 20 year old Peludat said.
“We all know now that what did happen to her was because she did what we all expected her to do and that was help somebody else, and I’m grateful for that,” he continued.
Despins, 22, was a passenger in a vehicle that rolled on the business 131 curve heading into Kalamazoo.
As a trained paramedic she got out to help another passenger who was ejected, Trevor Stuck. That’s when a second vehicle lost control, striking Despins and several other people head-on, including 23 year old Trevor Stuck who died at the scene.
“And my regards go out to Trevor’s family, because I know what they’re going through,” Peludat said.
Despins was listed in critical condition at Kalamazoo’s Bronson hospital, until she was taken off life support Friday. It’s a loss Peludat is trying to come to terms with.
“It’s just really hard for me because, I don’t know, whenever I had problems, Brittany was always there for me. I’ve been through a lot of rough things and Brittany’s never turned her back on me. Not once,” he said.
She leaves behind a fiancé. He’s a soldier serving in Afghanistan.
“He was out there fighting for our country, hoping to come back and marry a wonderful girl,” Peludat said.
Peludat says Despins’ fiancé flew back to Kalamazoo just in time to say his final goodbyes. Now he says family and friends are pulling together, supporting each other in these tough times.
“They say bad things happen to good people, and my thought now is, horrible things happen to great people,” he said.
“… it’s hard to say Brittany’s gone but now I that she’s in a great place and she’s my guardian angel. She always has been,” he explained.
Police say the driver of the vehicle that hit Despins was questioned and released at the scene.
A visitation is planned this Tuesday for Despins from 2 pm to 4 pm at the Shaw Funeral Home in Battle Creek. Her funeral is scheduled for Wednesday at 11 am.
Anyone wanting to donate and help the families of Brittany M. Despins, Trevor Stuck or Kent Smith can do so in their names through Chemical Bank.
