KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ariel Brookbank says her brother loved life, people and the outdoors.
She says her baby brother was also a true gentleman.
“He was very sweet, very fun and very caring. He always got my door. He was super chivalrous and everyone says, ‘Jed never knew a stranger,'” Ariel said of her little brother, Jedidiah Brookbank.
That’s one of the many things she’ll remember about the KC native, tragically killed when he was electrocuted in north Texas one week ago.
From all the good times they shared as kids to adulthood, Jedidiah always impressed his big sis.
“I was like the big sister, kind of mom, best friend to him, and I watched Jed have extremely high integrity through years of very hard things. I’ve always said since Jed was 10 that he was the best person I knew,” Ariel said.
“He was also very daring, an adventurist and very bold,” she said.
Ariel still can’t believe what happened to her brother on May 6.
She said during the wee hours of the morning, Jedidiah and his best friend were climbing a commercial building in downtown Waxahachie, Texas, when suddenly something awful happened to Jedidiah.
“He got off work and then was trying to climb some building that was probably about three stories high, and it had a bunch of wires on it. He was on a ladder, and he got electrocuted,” Ariel said.
Jedidiah was killed instantly.
Everyone who loved Jed can’t believe the guy who was full of life, who dreamed of joining the Navy after college and wanted to help others, is now tragically gone.
“It’s hard for all of us. I just want people to know he was the most selfless person I knew. We believe Jed’s in Heaven with Jesus. Jed believed in God, loved Jesus and we’re coping with this,” his sister said.
Brookbank was a junior at Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie.
Last Wednesday more than 200 people attended his memorial in north Texas.
“Every person was weeping and every person pretty much said the same thing that Jed never knew a stranger. He was the most intentional, kind person that they had ever met,” Ariel said.
