TANYA BRODEN (1981 - 2005)

I wasn't too surprised when my dad called me tonight at 11 pm. He said that he had some bad news and I just figured it had something to do with his computer again. I was in bed and just said, "oh yeah" then my father said "no, I have some really bad news". After he said that I thought Tango got out of the fence for his last time was and was struck by a car on hwy 2 and now we were going to be liable for the accident but nothing really prepared me for what he had to say.

Dad said that he heard on the news that a 24 yr old woman from Leeds, ND died in an accident but he didn't know who it was so he called my brother, Mike. Mike didn't know who it was either so he called one of his good friends who told Mike that it was Tanya Broden, a high school friend of mine.

I remember all the great times that I had with Tanya. We hung out a lot for a while. If I wasn't at her home, she was at ours, and if we couldn't see each other then we were on the phone talking. I remember specifically one summer on the 4th of July I was painting my room and she came over to keep me company while I was painting. When I finished painting my dad took Tanya and I into Devils Lake to see the fireworks show at Roller Field and then for ice cream, however, on our way into town we could see these flames and here their firework display caught on fire and messed up the whole show. We never got to see fireworks but we did get ice cream. We cruised town (Devils Lake, Cando, and Leeds) together on weekend evenings, I took her horse back riding a time or two. I even stayed with her and her parents one night at a hotel during a State Class B boys basketball tournament. I never remember one single time that Tanya ate the schools hot lunch. She always brought a bagged lunch from home. Inside her bagged lunch was always a ziplock back of animal crackers that she used to give me and I would sit with her in the hallway with all the other people with sacked lunches talking together, eating her animal crackers, and drinking sodas before the next period started.

After I graduated I kept in touch with Tanya through email and her cousin, Heidi Esch. When Tanya graduated she went to Moorhead State college and we only sent a few, brief emails and then the emails stopped coming all together. Some of you may remember her cause she, if I remember right, had a little fling with Jory for a bit or it was a huge crush and she wanted to date Jory. It was one of the two.

Tanya was living in Colorado with her current boyfriend, she was coming home for the week to spend with her family. She was on hwy 19 and was going to go from 19 to hwy 281 but she missed the turn where the two roads come together and she went off the road and into Devils Lake around 10:30 pm Thursday. She wasn't found until 8:00 am Friday morning.

Tanya had two younger siblings, Justin and Tiffany who are still in school.

I can only imagine her parents loss. It's still mind-numbing to think about it. It seems so surreal that she is gone now even though we haven't spoken in a long time. I still have her email address in my address book, but the emails going to t_party1999 will no longer be answered.

I don't know when or where the funeral is going to be at yet. I am guessing it's going to be in Leeds since that is where she is from. I hope to attend the prayer service and funeral both, when ever they will be held. I was thinking of going over to her parents home but it might be awkward since I haven't spoken to them either for a while. I will have to see about that. Right now I am still trying to tell myself that it's real, but I don't believe it.