In Auburn, friends and family remember a teen who loved people and punk music.
AUBURN- Devin Burnham loved playing the bass guitar.
It didn’t matter that a rare bone disease made his right arm shorter than his left. It didn’t matter that the fingers on his right hand were permanently curled toward his palm.
To him, the shiny bass meant rhythm and music, and at 13, he figured out a way to play.
“It was so important to him,” said his mother, Gloria Burnham. “He couldn’t do sports like the other kids could. He could do this.”
Despite the disease that gave him broken bones, shortened limbs and a twisted hand, Devin played bass nearly every day for five years. He reveled in the energetic punk music, first with his older sister and then with members of his band.
But on Monday, Devin’s bass sat untouched in his bedroom. His stereo played a CD mix, but Devin wasn’t there to hear it.
The songs – some of Devin’s favorites – were soft background noise for his parents, friends and band mates as they sifted through pictures of Devin at the kitchen table.
Devin died Friday. He learned to deal with Ollier’s Disease, the bone disorder that ravaged his body. But he could not overcome sudden complications from leukemia.
He was 18 years old.
“I thought he would pull through it,” his mother said. “He just always did.”
At Devin’s home Monday, friends and family members gathered to sort through pictures for a photo board to be posted at his funeral Tuesday.
Devin as a toddler, arms colored with blue ink. Devin posed for a school picture. Devin at a jam session just weeks ago, his dark sideburns stark against his skin.
“He was always smiling,” said his father, David Burnham. “He always had a sparkle in his eye.”
Even when it wasn’t easy.
Devin was 3 when he went through his first surgery to straighten his leg and 8 when doctors started lengthening it to match his left. Over the years, he broke nine bones, one while stepping off the school bus.
It made him empathetic.
“He understood what suffering was in other people,” said his sister, Shane Burnham. “He could just understand that better than somebody else his age could.”
But watching his friends, Devin grew discouraged sometimes, too.
“He wanted to do what other kids did,” his mother said.
He discovered music as a toddler, when his older sister’s punk music blared from her room. At 13, he started to play bass.
He immediately fell in love.
“For some people, music’s just, like, the way,” Rhiannon Brown, a friend and fellow punk rocker. “Everything revolved around music.”
Last summer, he and classmate Matt Theriault formed their own band, Bent Like Bob.
They jammed at Devin’s home almost every day. Once a month, the boys slept over, playing music and talking about their lives.
“He was a friend before a band mate,” Theriault said. “He wouldn’t be afraid to say what he wanted to say.”
A senior at Edward Little High School, Devin planned to pursue music after graduation. He talked about becoming a producer.
But late last week, as his school vacation was winding down, Devin began to feel sick. His blood pressure dropped sharply. Doctors sent him to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, then to Maine Medical Center in Portland.
Blood tests showed leukemia. But worse, he had an infection that the leukemia stopped his body from fighting.
Hours later, as he listened to his favorite music, Devin passed away.
On Monday, Devin’s home was crowded with teenagers. It felt, his mother said, like the band practice day.
“That will be the hard part, when they don’t come any more,” she said.
A family member brought a box of CDs to be handed out at Devin’s funeral. His friends had each chosen a special song for the collection.
The teens quietly started planning a benefit concert in Devin’s honor.
And then there was the concert Devin’s band had prescheduled for later this spring. As they sifted through the pictures Monday, the band decided it would still play.
“Devin would be upset if they didn’t,” his mother said.
But they would go without a bass player.
Comments are no longer available on this story