“It’s the Beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us. The question is not what we look at but what you see.” Henry David Thoreau

Braden Vande Visse Hall passed away Sunday Nov 27, 2022, under tragic circumstances. He was deeply loved and will be profoundly missed by all those that knew him. His life was one of love that was fully lived.

An avid outdoorsman, skilled sailor, lover of nature and adventure he was regularly described as having a huge heart that complimented his caring personality allowing him to connect with almost anyone he met. His character and love for life impacted all those that knew him.

Brady was a talented athlete growing up playing varsity tennis, sailing regularly, and involved in many outdoor sports. He pursued an interest in environmental science and geology at colleges in Colorado and Washington. His dyslexia hindered his studies, but he overcame it with vision treatment and ultimately graduated with a degree in Literary Studies, and enjoyed a lifelong pursuit of reading and creative writing. A skilled tradesman he worked in metal fabrication and construction throughout Washington State and in the North Dakota Oil fields. He spent two years in the Peace Corps in St Vincent and the Grenadines organizing and coaching youth basketball, teaching woodshop skills, and securing donations for more effective tools that made a real impact on the lives of that community. He started a successful painting business while he was in Minneapolis that ended when his business partner, a close friend, died of cancer. This grief of losing such a close friend made him switch careers to property management as an employee of a large multi-unit apartment complex. Together with his trade skills and personality attributes, he excelled both with hands-on maintenance and tenant relations. After meeting his partner Brenda in Minneapolis they eventually moved to Bellingham, WA. There, his natural “green thumb”, love of the natural world and his personable, friendly qualities in dealing with customers, enabled him to start and succeed in his own landscaping company.

Braden’s green thumb was as big as his heart . Even now, amazingly beautiful plants hang all over his house in Peaceful Valley, WA, as a testament to his ability and dedication to rejuvenating the most stubbornly difficult tropical plants. He always loved the beauty of the natural world and chose to surround himself with it.

Braden was a daredevil and said to have nine lives. He walked away from multiple major car accidents that totaled cars and broke bones. He survived staph infections from rock climbing and skin diving, and concussions from cliff jumping into water and snow. The stories about Braden are legendary and add an air of excitement ( and distress) to those that were privileged enough to retell his stories, but also reveal to the world what an exciting full life can look like.

If ever there was a candle that burned twice as bright it was in the way in which Braden chose to live and love. He traversed where most would be too timid. His energy emboldened others to live a fuller life, always elevating moments to be special. He loved chess, where as a child, he regularly played it at the top of a tree with an amazing view. If you went on a picnic with Braden you’d find yourself on top of a mountain or in a sailboat where the beauty of the world elevated your moment together. These special moments, the ones we look for and expect to find on expensive trips to other parts of the world he could create from simple hikes or time at the beach together. He always pushed for this level of engagement when others did not have the energy. If he was skin diving 60 feet down (which he did regularly) and if he saw a spiny lobster he would know how to grab it, and bring it to the surface and share it to whomever he could.

In the last few years of his life Braden struggled with addiction and his health but his essence and way of being is what everyone remembers. The way in which Braden lived impacted those who loved him and in how we now choose to take that extra step to make every moment in life special. He was much loved by everyone and his spirit will live on in all of us.

Braden is survived by his life partner Brenda Johnson, his parents Bruce and Dianne Hall and his sister Virginia Hall brother Mason Hall and his wife Piper Lemons and their daughter Isabel and son Dylan.

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