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BEATRICE, Neb. — When Brandon Curtis found out his dad, Brian, had cancer that had spread throughout his body and had less than a year to live, he immediately flew out from Los Angeles to be with his father in Nebraska.
"I spent a week with him, and then I didn't know what to do," Curtis told Today.com. "I wanted to be there for my dad, but I also had work commitments that required me to travel. I talked with him about it and he told me I needed to keep living my life."
But Brandon was torn between his life and job in California and wanting to be there every second he could with his father. Brandon's sister Jana had passed away eight months before Brian was diagnosed with cancer and Brandon said he didn't want to lose another family member without doing everything he possibly could to make them feel loved.
"My oldest sister, Jana, had passed away unexpectedly from an undetected heart virus just eight months prior — none of us had the chance to say goodbye," Brandon told Mashable.com. "So when we found out about my dad's terminal cancer, we were going to do anything it took to show him how much we loved him and to say goodbye."
"If I couldn't always be there, I needed a way for him to feel loved." Brandon Curtis.
Brandon heeded his father's advice and returned to California and his job but his thoughts turned to his dad lying in a bleak and dreary nursing home room for the rest of his short life, and he hated the thought. So he found a truly unique way to make his dying father's last months ones full of joy.
"If I couldn't always be there, I needed a way for him to feel loved," Brandon said
Brian Curtis' favorite time of day was sunset, when the sky starts to turn brilliant colors of blue and pink. He says his favorite color is "Sky Blue Pink," a color not recognized by Crayola or elementary school teachers, but one Brian insists is real. Brian's mother, Marie Spillman Curtis, first introduced him to the color. Brandon decided to cheer up his dad by replacing the drab color of his nursing room walls with the color "Sky Blue Pink."
Brandon had a vision to fill his father's room — but he couldn't do it alone. And so he launched an online campaign, called #Skybluepink, and enlisted the help of strangers on the internet to surround the elder Curtis with photos from around the world showing the color #Skybluepink. And the internet responded enthusiastically. Thousands joined the campaign to help Brian, and the Curtis family was astounded by the response.
"He couldn't believe how many were doing this — it completely caught him off guard," Brandon Curtis said. "He'd say, ‘Why are all these people taking time out of their day to help me? They've never met me. They're from countries on other side of the world. How did I get so lucky?'"
The photos kept pouring in via Twitter, Instagram and by mail. An elementary teacher went against the norm and taught her class about the color "Sky Blue pink. She then had her class draw "Sky Blue Pink" pictures for Brian. He also had people stopping by his nursing home to bring photos and say hello, and a local band wrote a song in his honor titled "Sky Blue Pink."
The response was more than Brandon could have hoped for. He was able to visit his father every month but the pictures provided peace, comfort and joy to Brian every day. Every photo that was tagged #skybluepink over the next 15 months was printed and hung in his room.
"(These pictures) have made every day a beautiful sight to wake up to," Brandon wrote on the SkyBluePink Tumblr page. "And has given (my dad) beautiful support each night before sleep."
Brian Curtis passed away Aug., 13, 2013, surrounded by his 36-year-old daughter Cindy, Brandon, and thousands of Sky Blue Pink photos. Brian couldn't speak very much, but he held on to their hands those last few hours.
"I told him he had been through a lot and it was OK to let go now," Brandon said. "I said he lived a good life and he set us up for success and he was the best father anyone could hope for."
Brandon said he's grateful for the support of strangers, which helped them all during Brian's last year of life.
"The whole #skybluepink project gave me peace of mind when I couldn't always be there," Brandon said. "I loved knowing that as soon as he woke up he had this visual reminder wrapped all around him that people were thinking of him and telling him, ‘We love you, we're thinking about you.'"
People are still sharing #skybluepink photos to honor Brian's memory and help comfort the Curtis family. For more information on the project, please visit the #skybluepink Tumblr page.
