A heartbroken man from Bend, Oregon, has posted a moving tribute to his girlfriend of one year and their unborn baby after losing them both in a car accident - just five days before Christmas.
Brandon Forseth told his social media followers how he and Kylee Bruce, 24, had decided to keep their baby news as a secret until they passed the 20 week stage. "You made me promise not to announce our baby to the world until 20 weeks when we found out the sex. We were going to make a funny announcement video and share it with everyone," he wrote in a lengthy Facebook post, shared on December 21.
According to local authorities, Kylee lost control of her car on her way home from a basketball game on Tuesday evening. The 29-year-old continued his post, saying: "I want everyone to know how committed you were to this child, how health conscious you were, how you would go online each week and tell me things like, 'Our baby is the size of a grapefruit right now,' or 'Did you know our baby has already started to develop eyelids?'"
In the gut-wrenching tribute, Brandon expressed his guilt for not driving his girlfriend to the game. "I couldn't keep you safe last night," he added. "I should have went with you … like you asked … I shouldn’t have been too tired and maybe things would have worked out differently. What a twisted, cruel world we live in that decides to take a clean, beautiful, innocent soul like yours away, instead of mine. I'd switch places with you in a second.
Brandon Forseth opened up about his heartache after losing his girlfriend and unborn child
"I promise to keep being the man you fell for, I promise to do something great with this life I have left, I promise to make you proud of me, I promise to never take anything for granted again, and I promise to say I love you to those I care about early and often. I wish I would have said it to you last night before you left, but in my heart, I know that you knew."
Since the gut-wrenching post was shared online, it has received over 74,000 likes and has been shared nearly 200,000 times Bruce's cousin has set up a GoFundMe to help cover funeral expenses. "Kylee and our baby gave me a purpose in life that I'm not quite sure how to find again," Brandon later told Us Weekly. "I promise to carry on their legacy and make them proud."