Boy, 11, mowed lawns to buy headstone for father he never knew

All summer, 11-year-old Brandon Bakke of Fargo, N.D., who was adopted at birth, mowed lawns to save money to buy a headstone for father in Chicago he never knew.

On Oct. 14, the sixth-grader came to Chicago to see his dream come true, thanks to donations by a monument company and the cemetery, after a TV station in North Dakota reported on his quest.

Brandon never knew his biological father, who died recently. But he felt enough of a connection to want to personally buy a grave marker. And the Fargo couple who had adopted him supported his effort.

Brandon had been asking about his biological parents, according to Brandon Bakkey, his mother.

“He just asked more and more questions,” she told WDAY-TV in Fargo.

On finding out that his father, Terrence, had died in Chicago and was buried without a marker, Brandon decided he needed to do something.

“I don’t think anybody should go unknown in life even though the choices that they made or anything,” Brandon told the North Dakota TV station.

Dakota Monument of Fargo surprised Brandon by donating the headstone. Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip also waived its normal fees.

Brandy Bakke told the New York Daily News that Brandon plans to do snowblowing jobs this winter to raise money for others buried without gravestones.