This website contains honest, compassionate reflections on the life and death of
-Branden Knorr-
A beloved friend, veteran, and human being who died by suicide following a long battle
with combat trauma, addiction, and mental health struggles.
As part of a tradition known as Speaking for the Dead, this site tells Brandon’s story truthfully—not to judge, not to glorify, but to understand. The content here may include discussions of trauma, suicide, PTSD, addiction, drugs and alcohol, family conflict, and other adult themes. These stories are shared openly and lovingly, to break silence and reduce shame.
We believe that we are only as sick as our secrets—and healing begins with truth.
Brandon’s life deserves to be remembered in full:
not as a myth, but as a the man he was.
Not just the pain he carried, but the light he gave.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, please don’t wait.
📞 Call 911 for medical emergencies or 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
You can also go directly to the nearest emergency room.
This is not just a memorial. It’s a call to awareness, to honesty, and to love.
In our world, when someone dies, we do not bury only their body—we carry their memory. And too often, we carry it wrong: polished into something false, or buried beneath silence and shame.
The practice of Speaking for the Dead was born to answer that.
A Speaker for the Dead is someone who tells the story of a person’s life—not just the parts that were pleasant or acceptable, but all of it. Who they were, what they loved, what they feared. Their triumphs and failures. The wounds they gave and the wounds they carried.
We do this not to condemn, not to excuse, but to understand.
A Speaker learns as much as they can—talking to those who knew the deceased, listening without judgment, piecing together the hidden truths. Then, in a gathering after death, the Speaker shares the full story. Not from the outside, but as if the person’s soul were being allowed, for one final time, to be seen clearly and without distortion.
CAPTURING MOMENTS AS THEY HAPPEN
Not posed. Not polished. Just real.
Here, we remember a soul in motion—
a man who walked through fire with laughter on his lips
and shadows at his back.
Each moment captured is a prayer,
a fragment of light through the trees,
a ripple in the water where he cast his line
and left a trace of himself behind.
This is how we honor him:
by telling the truth with love.
By letting the story breathe,
so that others might find their voice
before it’s too late.