My sweet sister was born on September 28th, 1988 to our parents Steve and Debbie Powley. She was the youngest of us three girls, Amanda being the oldest and me the middle child.
Brittany was a cutie-pie baby with blonde hair and blue eyes and was so adored by our family and friends. Following a Minnesota trip when she was a baby, my parents gave her the nickname Traveler. For the rest of her life she would be Trav.
She attended Boulder Elementary with us sisters and joined Girl Scouts. We always played outside with our puppies and kitties and inside with her play-kitchen listening to Pat Benatar.
Every summer since Brittany was a baby my parents would take us camping. This was her favorite activity in the summer and looked forward to it every year. We loved sleeping on the deck outside looking at the stars. Our dad brought out a mattress for us. Holidays were always a big thing for our family growing up and continued to be important to her into adulthood, with Halloween being her favorite. This was because we have many warm memories of family during Halloween.
In the early 90’s we moved to Helena and we attended Warren Elementary for a short time before moving again and transfering to Four Georgians. We walked to and from school together. We shared chores, we shared bedrooms, we shared everything! She did very well in school and won the spelling bee, making it to the county competition.
Brittany attended C.R. Anderson middle school when she was 12. That’s when she became a shy kid. I remember when the Nintendo PlayStation came out and she wanted it more than anything. I was so happy to be able to get it for her. She played games ever since that Christmas.
Later on she attended Capital High. She had a punky style and listened to music that fit that style. Music was her therapy and she took time out of every day to unwind with her Blink-182. She rode skateboard and helped raise money to build the Boulder skate park. We sold raffle tickets and baked brownies to sell at the Boulder Bank.
She would come with me to my babysitting jobs and she, too, worked early in life. She was 14 when she worked alongside me as a telemarketer. She had multiple jobs during high school including at the Gaslight movie theater, Domino’s, and Goodwill, a job she was offered while doing community service after a Minor in Possession charge. She was a hard worker and took pride in all she did.
After graduating high school, she took classes at University of Phoenix for accounting. She had moved back to Boulder and started working nights at the Boulder Hot Springs alongside her Uncle Gene. They had a good time working together. I went to work with her a couple nights and couldn’t stop laughing at times. Brittany always made me crack up. Later she got hired working nights at the Montana Developmental Center. She referred to herself as a vampire: Sleep during the day, and work all night.
Brittany was unique. She loved makeup and colorful hair although she’d always eventually go back to blonde. We’d call ourselves twins and made a pact that we’d have the same hair forever. She liked piercings and loved tattoos and art. Her blue room was full of movies, mostly horror, and CDs. She had collected every NOW CD ever made. She loved reading books, especially dark novels and Everything Skulls, Nintendo, and Nightmare Before Christmas.
She said our mom was her best friend. One of her favorite things to do was “hang out” with mom making crafts and baking or picking out a great movie. Watching movies with loved ones was always a favorite. Comedy or horror. She liked driving around with “the dads” and going fishing with him. And she loved buying people gifts, especially mom and dad. She was always buying me candles and Hello Kitty stuff.
Brittany was always very childlike in her silliness and excitement of things. She had a love for animals; her cat, named “Mouse,” was the love of her life. She and I never stopped playing, even into adulthood. We had dreams of living on wheels; whether it was a camper or our VW bus, we were going to make it happen.
Brittany was diagnosed with stage 3 metastatic melanoma in 2015 and finished treatment with courage and hope. But she also fell into a depression. She found a love for gardening at this time, her favorite flower being a dahlia. She had compassion like no other and her biggest fear in life was “the day we lose mom and dad.”
She moved to Butte with my parents in 2018 and was hired by Acadia Montana Treatment Center. She loved her job helping children, once telling her supervisor, “this is my purpose.”
Brittany was 30 when she left us. We feel she was too gentle for this world, so she decided not to stay. The world is a much darker place without her. She was my other half, my entire childhood; I don’t have a single memory that doesn’t include her. She was my biggest fan and loved and supported me through everything.
Brittany had an impact on so many lives. We will continue living a life of love because of Brittany, and for her.
