‘It was Tyler’s time’
Published 2:45 pm Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Hundreds of people packed the Sequim High School auditorium for a memorial service for Tyler Braithwaite on Saturday, April 10.
Braithwaite, 17, died when his truck crashed Sunday, March 28, on a Forest Service Road near Slab Camp south of Sequim. Friends said he swerved to avoid hitting a deer.
The friends, Rachel Myers, 18, and Michael Fleming, 16, were injured in the crash and have been discharged from hospitals to which they were taken.
The Rev. Jim Chase of the Forks Assembly of God Church presided over the service where others recalled Braithwaite as a fun-loving, friendly mischievous young man.
An honor guard of the American Legion Riders held flags outside the auditorium as people filed in.
According to Jeff McFarland of American Legion Post 29, the members were supporting Braithwaite’s mother, Tammy Sullenger, the Clallam County veterans coordinator and the administrative assistant to the Clallam County commissioners.
About 60 other motorcyclists attended the memorial, including members of the Band of Brothers club to which Braithwaite’s father, Henry Braithwaite, belongs.
Chase told the assembly that Braithwaite, although only a teenager, had lived a full life.
“It was Tyler’s time,” he said.
