In Memory of Bryan O'Neill

Bryan came to us through the ROP program with Del Oro high school.  As a dealership we had not participated in the ROP program before and Bryan was the first.  It wasn’t long before everyone really took notice of his work ethic and determination.  He was always on time, as he entered the auto mall in his 1968 VW baja bug engine revving as he rounded the corner to employee parking.   After a day of friendly harassment, sweeping floors and lending a hand to anyone in need he would ask for a quart of oil to top off his car for the drive home.  It was a topic of conversation almost every day, amidst the normal shop talk.  As trust and unity grew in the shop with him, we began to understand what Bryan’s past had been, growing up he experienced a lot of hardship. There was a specific time that our team of technicians worked together to support Bryan and since that day, Bryan never forgot about that and we had a brother for life.  Bro’niell, as we called him, had so many things working against him through his adolescent years.  I feel that Roseville Volkswagen was a normality for him in his life.  To me, he was a brother, friend and "son".  He always practiced kindness and would often make me reevaluate situations that I could have done better.  He was a sponge for knowledge and seeing him grow to one of our top producing reliable technicians was the biggest payback of any investment I have ever made.  He took everything we taught him and built upon it. 

Through the years, Bryan started dating his recent girlfriend Anna.  Anna had been a friend of Bryans in high school and began dating in their later years.  Anna had a similar background as Bryan which made the most loving and powerful relationship I have ever witnessed.  They both said that one another was their better half.  Bryan always spoke highly of Anna and how proud of her he was for putting herself into college courses as she strives to be a nurse.  One of the most recent conversations that I had with Bryan was that he knew he had to work extra hard to save money because Anna was going to apply for nursing school and if accepted she would be unable to work.  That conversation was the Friday before his passing.  As all of the techs talked about Bryan the Monday morning after his passing,  Anna was definitely someone we are all worried about. She is young and lived together with Bryan, their 2 dogs and a rescue horse.  Like Bryan, Anna is very intelligent, thoughtful and determined to make something of herself. 

As a shop we are all proud of where we work  and who we work for.  Holman is very much a family like we are here and have done so much for the communities they impact and the employees they work for.  With that we thought that maybe there is something we can do to assist Anna to fulfill her goals and dreams as a tribute or thank you to Bryan for giving so much to all of us.  Both Bryan and Anna have never been ones for handouts and when we made a Go-Fund-Me for the service, Anna politely asked to take it down as Bryan would not have wanted the handout for himself.  I feel that if we as a company were able to use funds to assist Anna in her pursuit of education to become a nurse, it wouldn’t be a handout but something that Bryan worked so hard for and earned.

-Brian Lemos, Shop Foreman