Terence Brennan

Terence Brennan

66, of Lowell, IN passed away Tuesday, July 18, 2023. He is survived by “The Woman in Purple” Genise Brennan; children, Aaron (Angie), Ariel (Kyle) Mitsch, Ashlen (Jarrod) Martindale; grandchildren, Joseph, Emery, Preston, Christian; siblings, Mike, Walter, Tom, Kathleen, Mary, Tricia, Carolyn, Barbara. Preceded in death by his parents, Robert and Mari; brother, Tim. Terence was a lover of the outdoors, warm Christian Brothers Brandy, and bowlegged women.

Cremation preceding Visitation, Sunday, July 23rd from 10AM-2PM at Sheets Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 604 E. Commercial Ave, Lowell IN 46356.

Terry’s Life began in Falls Church, Virginia. It started with his falling down the stairs at our house; it was then that he got his red hair. His life has been hell ever since. Sometimes, he wishes he knew the identity of his father; maybe it would help him understand where his violent tendencies come from.

He says, “I just accept it as part of my Irish heritage. I was told once that my ancestors were hung as horse thieves in Ireland. I hope that’s true, because it’s great story. That’s where Dad was while we were growing up, off rustling horses for Mom to serve for dinner. I’ve had horse meat and its really quite good. Mom was a great cook; I will always cherish her famous “Good Ol’ Yuckers.”

After becoming a redhead, the next thing I can remember is making cinnamon rolls with Grandma Hannan. Those were awesome; even better than cinnabons. Grandma’s house was where I jumped out of a tree and broke my foot – bad timing, Grandpa’s funeral – nobody listened for three days. The doc just looked kind of funny at Mom when we finally got to the hospital.

I loved playing “spin the bottle” with Sharon and Larry’s kids. I will always remember Uncle Larry taking us to the American River to fish and play. I was upset to hear of their family breaking apart.

After a series of head doctors, we all just decided I was a wild and crazy Irishman. Sounded kind of cool to me. And, Walt thought HE was the wild one! I kind of missed a lot of years between 8 and 16. Anybody know why?

We did a lot of camping with the Cupertino Recreation Dept. That was a blast. We hiked all over the Sierra Nevada Mountains and lots of other places. We had real live bears walking through our camp looking for food; I mean two or three feet from us! We learned a lot of camping skills that I still use today. John Thomas was our fearless leader; I’m sure he loved having the Brennan boys to teach his wilderness skills to.

After high school, I worked at Sears for the summer, installing a computer cash register system for 42.45 per hour. I stayed at Wayne Brewer’s parents house, until I got caught climbing through the window drunk one night. They kicked me out, so I headed to Kings Canyon National Park and began a 500 mile hike over Kearsarge Pass-=, the highest pass in the Sierra range at 11,800 feet. I spent 3 weeks backpacking through the mountains by myself. I would love to do it again with all of you folks. I finally made it to Highway 395 in western Nevada and hitchhiked up north to my new school in Susanville, California. It was a gunsmithing and forestry college. What a blast was that!

The first few months were spent in the dormitory with 110 guys and seven girls, none of whom could speak English. After that, a wild bunch of us lived in the woods up on a hill overlooking the school. We would shoot deer and geese for food. Our parents provided us with the beer money all college kids need.

After a year at the Junior College, I transferred to Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. The first few weeks were rough; sleeping bag under a building on the outskirts of the campus and showering in the gym. Arcata is a wonderful area, located in northernmost California, right on the mountainous coastline.

I got to play a little intramural football with a group of black gents. I was the only honky on the team which was called the “Booty Snatchers.”

After a couple years and a violent run-in with Chemistry, I had had enough schooling and thought it best to see about finding a job.

My career as a roofer began with back breaking work, loading roofs with concrete tile, with my good buddy Dave “Smitty” Smith. When we weren’t working hard, we were drinkin’ hard. We used to go out at night looking for money to be made, which always included TROUBLE…

Dave was a little guy with a big mouth and would always find a larger drunk to be our next unsuspecting target. Dave would bet $100 bucks that he could knock the guy out. Once the money was on the bar and the fight began, it was up to me to finish it while Dave skedaddled with the money!!

This type of behavior was normal for the next few years as I continued roofing. It was always the same- work in the summer, fix leaks and collect unemployment in the winter. All that changed when Dad looked in the want ads one Sunday morning. He found an ad for Northern Telecom who was looking for Telephone Installers. That ad took me for a long ride.

I began working for Northern Telecom in 1980, living in Northern California, and eventually moving to Los Angeles, and living with brother Tom.

The beach life was wonderful… a long parade of lovelies resulted in a chance meeting with “The Woman in Purple!”

While driving down the road one day, I chanced upon a lil’ hottie in a Mazda RX-7 with a bumper sticker that read “I STOP FOR SEX.” So, I chased that car down and followed the gal into a clothing store where she was working. I went in, bought some jeans and checked her out. When I left, there was a note on her car telling her I was madly in love with her and would she please call me.

Several weeks went by, then one Friday night while I was at work, brother Tom got a call from “The Woman in Purple.” Well, it’s been twenty-plus years now, we have been married several times and have three wonderful children.

Forward to the year 2011, and our son Aaron James Brennan is 23 years old and living with his gal, Angie.

Second oldest is daughter Ariel Genine Brennan, currently living with a local farm boy, Kyle.

The youngest, Ashlen Margaret Mary Brennan, is living in Bloomington, Indiana, attending the university studying to be a nurse.

Well, that’s it for now…”

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