Brayden Denton, 5, Remembered With Superhero Funeral

Brayden Denton, 5-years-old, died of a brain tumor on May 8 and was honored with a superhero funeral.

Brayden, a young boy from Indiana, suffered from Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma and was diagnosed on April 20, 2013. When it came time to arrange Brayden’s funeral, his mother, Staci Denton decided to incorporate Brayden’s favorite superheroes. As opposed to traditional funeral dress, Denton asked the pallbearers to dress up as superheroes.

“I felt like I was honoring him in a way that if he was looking down on us he would be happy,” Denton explained.

At his funeral, Brayden was escorted by Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Batman, Superman and Spiderman, his favorite.

“The whole time I saw them carrying Brayden he was probably up there going, ‘This is so cool.’ That was his world. That’s what he would have wanted,” Denton told the New York Daily News.

“He was a huge Spiderman fan. He had to quit just liking Spiderman because he had all the toys. So really, he liked every superhero,” Denton told WLFI news.

In 2013, Brayden even got the chance to meet Spiderman at Universal Studios, Florida thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and, though he was very ill at the time, he was able to go see The Amazing Spider-Man 2 film with his mother before he died.

“That was one of our battles that we wanted to make sure he got to see that movie,” Denton revealed.

Brayden’s uncle, Cory Denton remembered watching superhero movies with his nephew and dressed as Thor for the funeral.

“It was hard, but I did it for him. We went to the Superman movie with him and he was dressed as Superman. I watched all the Ironman [movies] with him,” Cory said.

Cory went on to say that he would always be watching superhero movies with Brayden, whether his nephew is sitting by his side or not.

“He’s always here with me, and I’ll always watch them with him because he is always with me,” Cory said.

Denton donated Brayden’s tumor to research and is continuing to raise awareness for Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, a disease which kills 90 percent of children affected within less than 2 years after being diagnosed.

Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.