Kylee Bruce drove off in her 2006 Saturn Ion on Tuesday, December 20, to play basketball with friends, but she never came home. The Redmond, Oregon–based 24-year-old was killed when she lost control of her vehicle and slid into oncoming traffic while attempting to pass another car.
Bruce left behind her mother, father, seven siblings and boyfriend, Brandon Forseth, who was keeping the couple’s big secret: They were expecting their first child together in June.
“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,” Forseth began in a heartbreaking Facebook post to his girlfriend of nearly a year on December 21.
The 29-year-old apologized for breaking his promise. “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, Forseth also expressed his grief and guilt at not being there with Bruce when she passed. “I couldn’t keep you safe last night,” he wrote. “I should have went with you … like you asked … I shouldn’t have been too tired and maybe things would have worked out differently.”
Forseth penned the emotional post while staring at the Christmas tree they cut down together. “The base is filled with presents to me, from beautifully wrapped and neatly stacked. There’s none under there to you because I haven’t wrapped them yet … procrastinating like always … but I want you to know that I got you a bunch of things you would have loved Ky,” he wrote. On December 25, he wrote, Bruce would have opened a vanity “so you finally would have a place to do your makeup instead of sharing the tiny little bathroom mirror with me,” books “because you love to read,” and a soup thermos “so you could pack hot lunches to your brand new pre-school teaching job.”
His open letter has since been shared more than 133,000 times and has received nearly 32,000 likes to date.
“You only lived with me for a short time, but my house is filled with your clothes, your coat is hanging by the front door and your snow boots are on the mat right where you left before you left last night, but it feels so empty here right now,” Forseth wrote. “I’m still waiting for you to walk in the door.”
He signed off with a note to his unborn child, writing, “Rest in peace, Braylee or Talon, daddy loves you so much.”
Bruce’s cousin set up a GoFundMe to help cover funeral and memorial expenses.
“Kylee and our baby gave me a purpose in life that I’m not quite sure how to find again,” Forseth tells Us Weekly. “I promise to carry on their legacy and make them proud.”
