Brendan Kent Jaramillo

Brendan Kent (“Julio” to many of his friends) Jaramillo, 21 years young, passed away on Sunday, August 16, 2020, after a valiant fight against osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer.

Brendan was born November 2, 1998 in American Fork, Utah to his “Papá,” Robert Val Jaramillo and his “Momma,” DarLeana Kay Rasmussen Jaramillo. He participated in the Spanish Immersion program throughout his years at Timpanogos Elementary School, and he attended Dixon Middle School. Brendan graduated from Provo High School in 2017, where he loved participating in choirs under the direction of Kenny Wiser, playing football, and making dear friendships that continued to support and sustain him through the many difficult challenges he endured.

After a lifetime of deliberate preparation, in 2017, Brendan was called to serve as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, assigned to labor in the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission, under the leadership of President Jack Ross Williams and his companion, Sister Lisa Williams. His call was to teach the gospel in Spanish, and he trained at the new Missionary Training Center, close to home in Provo, where he had the unique opportunity to greet and guide people through the public open house. Many visitors had their open house tours enriched by seeing Elder Jaramillo’s familiar smiling face and feeling his characteristic warmth.

Brendan loved the people he met and taught in Wisconsin. He had several missionary companions and developed close friendships with many more missionaries who he also loved.

After five months of service, while playing Preparation Day basketball “maybe a little too aggressively,” Brendan sprained his left knee. That sprain opened the window to his receiving standard medical tests that ultimately revealed a cancerous aggressive tumor at the top of his left tibia. Completing his missionary service after five months, he returned home a few days before Christmas to receive urgent medical care. Throughout 2018, he endured grueling chemotherapy treatments and several major surgeries that culminated in his left leg needing to be amputated above his knee. He met these trials with optimism and humor, motivating, and encouraging many hundreds of people facing their own life trials.

Brendan’s friends were dearly important to him, and he spent as much time as possible nurturing and celebrating these relationships. Friendships from his high school days continued to grow, and he made many more friends through work experiences and social activities. Meeting Clara Brotherson at a 2018 New Year’s Eve party was among the greatest blessings Brendan received during his life. This best-friendship carried him through some of his darkest days during cancer treatment and provided great joy, happiness, fun, and love as he sought to live life to its fullest. Clara has been the brightest source of light in his life.

Brendan traveled throughout the United States and to foreign destinations in Tokyo, Paris, Prague, and other destinations in the Czech Republic. He greatly enjoyed these opportunities to meet people with very different cultures and life experiences than his own.

Brendan was proud of his Hispanic heritage, and he actively defended oppressed individuals and minority groups.

Brendan is survived by his parents; all of his siblings, Ashton (Disbrow), Sophia, Maxwell, Ian, Cole (Disbrow), and Josephine, all of Provo, Utah; his grandparents, Val and Patsy Carrell Jaramillo (Provo, Utah) and Darla Beaumont Rasmussen Christiansen (Orem, Utah); a great-grandfather, Kenneth W. Carrell (St. George, Utah); many aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.

The family expresses its sincere gratitude for the excellent medical care Brendan has received over the past 3 years from Drs. Jodie Miles, Greg Litton, David Griffin, Christian Barney, and their fantastic partners and medical teams, nurses, medical techs, surgical staffs and others who helped extend Brendan’s time with us.

Friends may call at the Berg Mortuary of Provo, 185 East Center Street, Thursday, August 20, 2020 from 6-8:00 p.m. and at the North Park Stake Center Chapel, 1066 West 200 North, Provo, Utah, Friday, August 21 from 9-10:30 a.m. Funeral services will follow and are by invitation. Interment, Timpanogos Memorial Gardens. Condolences may be expressed at www.bergmortuary.com.