In the early 1970s Dave Hawks left Montana for Boise, Idaho, as a single parent, to seek employment and make a fresh start for himself and his nine children - the oldest of whom was only 14 at the time! It was there that he met Lynn Brixey of Caldwell, who was also the single parent of McDermitt Combined School Alumni Brandy (Hawks) Romantic. Brandy, who was born in Boise in 1973, was about 1-year-old when she joined her nine half siblings. Her step sister Tina - the youngest of the nine- was only a year older. Brandy shared her half brothers and sisters last name and says that Dave Hawks was the only father she ever had.
Dave and Lynn (Lynn now lives in Lawton, Okla.,) had one child together - Brandy's younger brother Dana who lives in Wilder, Idaho where he is a caregiver for his and Brandy's maternal grandmother.
Brandy remembers starting school in Boise, and being first in Brownies followed by Girl Scouts. Her best friend was Lisa, and she liked going to roller skating parties on Friday nights. She will never forget when her dad told them that they were going to move to McDermitt. She said that when he described the area, she was apprehensive about the change from the city to a tiny little town located on the isolated high desert of northern Nevada! By the time they made the move most of the older children in the family had grown up and had moved out on their own. A nervous Brandy started 5th grade in McDermitt accompanied by two of her older step siblings - Ace Hawks (MHS 1987) and Tina (Hawks) Vandenheuvel (MHS 1990) and her younger half brother.
Brandy said that the first day of school was so different and so scary! Everyone already knew each other and most had gone to school together since kindergarten. She does have fond memories of her teacher that year, Nickie Doiron; she liked Bob Barnes; and she was happy when she made forever friends with classmate Christine Elordi. She recalls their neighbors had two daughters a little older, Penney (MHS 1986) and Naomi Anton that she used to go and visit.
Bob Pace's math class was a favorite in Junior High, but she says that she attached herself to her PE teacher Cindy Sherburn! She said that Cindy's younger sister Johnna (Falen) Bruhn (MHS 1988) was on the high school varsity basketball team at that time and while Johnna waited for Cindy to go home after practice she would work with Brandy on free throws. Brandy now looks back on her high school years and is grateful for the opportunities that she had in the small school. She feels she might not have gotten to play sports in a big school but was on the volley ball squad for McDermitt. She was also on the basketball team coached by Cindy (to whom she was still 'attached') and thanks to Johnna, she became somewhat of a free-throw specialist for the Bulldogs! When Brandy was a freshman and Johnna was a senior the McDermitt girls won the 1988 State Basketball Championship. She says that as a freshman, she sat on the bench for the game but she proudly wore her Lady Dawgs uniform!
While Cindy Sherburn was her favorite teacher, her favorite class was history with Barb Ferguson. Road trips were a fun memory - she loved the time hanging out on the bus. As McDermitt is a LITTLE isolated that was their main activity! She believes that sometimes you have to get older and look back to appreciate the things about a small town that city kids sometimes miss out on. She loved four wheeling on the desert and remembers going with Christine out behind the McDermitt land fill in Christine's dad's truck to drive over the bumps - later they had to go out and find the tail gate that had fallen off!
She graduated with salutatorian honors with 12 classmates and enrolled at Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Ore. The next year she moved home to Dave and Lynn's who were living near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho on Rose Lake. In May 1993 Brandy had a baby girl that she named Taya. She soon got an apartment in Kellogg, Idaho for herself and her daughter, and worked at the Ski Lodge on Silver Mountain while attending school at North Idaho College.
With an associate's degree in hand she made plans to attend Phillip College in Spokane to become a medical assistant. Unfortunately the school folded due to a lack of funds so Brandy continued to work mornings at the ski resort and evenings at Zany's Pizza to support herself and her infant daughter.
Brandy first met Joe Romantic (how could you not like the last name!) in 1995 when he came to Kellogg on a business venture. He soon returned to California because he had a small daughter living there.
Six months later he returned with his daughter. Both Taya and Samantha were about 3-years-old when Joe and Brandy blended their families. They moved to Coeur d' Alene where Joe cooked in a convalescent center and Brandy worked for a collection agency. She worked in that field for six years moving up to higher pay. In 2002 she held the same type of job for Verizon Wireless. That was also the year Romantic became her legal name! Her only regret is that in May, just before her wedding, the person she had always known as "Dad" passed away and wasn't there for her special day.
Brandy says although she loves her family, it isn't always easy even with a good husband and two beautiful daughters. Their daughter Taya, who is now 20, has her own apartment nearby and is a practicing beautician. Samantha however, has had more of a struggle with adjustment that has continued on to this day.
When the girls were 15, Sam's problems were multiplied when she was found to have a serious kidney disorder. At 20, and on dialysis, she sometimes rebels against her health issues, and cannot be placed on a kidney donor list because she doesn't follow through with the requirements that a donor recipient has to commit to.
Joe now works as a wielder for Kimball Office putting together office furniture and Brandy, after 12 years with Verizon before they closed their offices in that area, has now worked at Mountain West Bank for a year and a half. She works in the Operation Center as a Bankruptcy/Administrative Assistant and as the benefits are not as good as Verizon, she is glad she had a great job while raising the girls. The bank position is less stressful and she foresees staying as there is a lot of room for growth. She and Joe would be interested in a business venture of their own, but that is a step they would not want take unless they were sure it was something that would be stable.
Brandy is very close to her step sister Tina who lives nearby. Tina is educated in fitness and nutrition and has supported and encouraged Brandy to adapt to a healthier lifestyle of working out and eating healthier. Both have participated in several 5k runs, a 186 mile relay race and a half marathon.
Brandy enjoys her beautiful yard in the summer. Full of a multitude of beautiful plants and flowers, it is obvious that she was blessed with a green thumb. She thinks she would like to retire young - about 60 - and she and Joe would like to travel. One place on their list is New Zealand, but their goal is to join the snowbirds traveling south someday, to escape the cold that sometimes creeps into Northern Idaho during the winter months.
Brandy would say to McDermitt kids, that include her friend Christine's boys, "Usually there are consequences for the decisions that you make - either positive or negative. Life lessons are important and you can learn from them, but keep negatives in perspective. Life is so good-especially if you share and are not selfish!"[[In-content Ad]]
