Big Dyl Legacy Fund

Dylan was an active and outgoing young man who, throughout his school years, often, sometimes even to a fault, thought about people more than himself.  He graduated in 2014 and, like many young people, he moved out with a friend and found a job shortly after.  Tragically, a few months later while walking to work he was hit by a car while crossing a crosswalk.  He was airlifted to Royal Columbian hospital in a coma.  Despite the odds, he survived, but with an acquired traumatic brain injury which greatly impaired his cognitive and social functioning.  After four months in the hospital and at GF Strong he moved back home with his family, and his journey of learning to live with a brain injury began.  

For the nearly 6 years that followed, we learned a lot about brain injuries.  We learned about the lack of knowledge many have and the massive shortfall of funding and support.  While Dylan was a very changed person underneath his struggles, he was always well-intentioned with a good sense of humour.  His doctors did a fantastic job repairing broken bones and his love for fitness helped greatly in his physical recovery.  This provided additional challenges for Dylan as people often couldn’t understand his struggles because, on the surface, he was a healthy man in his early 20’s.  Most people don’t understand brain injuries and they couldn’t see his lack of ability to understand social cues, his lack of memory, his debilitating headaches, the exhaustion, the confusion, and the strain that all took on relationships he had with people.  Because of these challenges, Dylan really enjoyed the times he was able to attend programs through the FVBIA like cooking classes, coffee and chat, or guitar lessons with people who understood his struggles.  Unfortunately, as we found out, these opportunities are very few and they are often underfunded and under-supported.

When Dylan was younger, he hated being called dill pickle, but over time it grew to not bother him.  One day we while browsing a store, we saw a shirt with a dill pickle on it that said, “I’m kind of a big Dill”, so we had to buy it -- a humorous nod to that old nickname and with knowing he had an appreciation for a good pun.  Dylan loved that shirt and wore it a lot over the following years, it was a joke that for him just never got old.  Following his passing in the summer of 2020, we began working to support groups like the Fraser Valley Brain Injury Association and Communitas as a way of carrying on his giving spirit.  We have tried to help those who had helped us and our son so much over the years.  Understanding that we won’t always be able to support these things financially and seeing a need to put our efforts into something that will hopefully outlive us, we have recently established the Big Dyl Memorial Fund.  

Contributions to this fund will be invested and continue to grow and provide lasting support for classes, social gatherings, education, and awareness far into the future, beyond what we could do with a single donation.