Obituary - Brandon W. Buras
April 27, 2001

I went to the PRCA rodeo in Gonzales, LA Friday night to see Klein's bulls. I was running a little late and as it turned out, they had a first section of bulls.

On the road to the arena, I passed an ambulance flying the other way with police escorts. After I got to the back of the chutes, I found out that in the passing ambulance was a young friend of mine named Brandon Buras. He was one of the first guys out in the first section of bulls, and had been in a serious wreck and been stepped on. They took him to the hospital in Gonzales where we later heard that they prepped him for transport to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, which is where we found him immediately after the rodeo.

Brandon did not pull through. He was 22.

Brandon was a senior at Southeastern Louisiana University, attending on a rodeo scholarship (the Lane Frost Memorial Scholarship I think), and majoring in Biology / Pre-Med. His services were held today at the Pine Grove Methodist Church in Pine Grove, LA. His official obituary will say that he was survived by his mother, Cathy;  his father, Al; and his brother, Trey — but that is not the whole truth. Brandon was deeply loved and admired by his family and friends. He was a good guy and a paragon of virtue to his peers.

He was also a member of the large loose-knit family of bull riders. He was just coming into his own at the PRCA level. He worked hard at bull riding as he did everything else. He took the same chances as the the rest of us, without looking back, and without regret. He stuck his hand in the rope and tried hard every time, and this time the outcome was such that the rest of us will always wonder "why" when we remember. And for all our wondering, we will never understand why this came to pass. Why this young man? Why do these people, his loved ones, have to be the ones to endure this pain? The same unanswerable questions are poised in our minds each time we lose a member of the bull riding family.

There is no explanation for some of the things that happen in our lives, at least none that will relieve Cathy of the burden of losing a child. And without that divine explanation that would make sense of it all, the best we can do here is to ask each of you to remember her and the rest of Brandon’s family and friends in your prayers.

Slade Long
April 30, 2001