Marine Lance Cpl. Timothy W. Brown, 21, Sacramento; killed by a roadside bomb

When Timothy Wayne Brown was in Marine Corps boot camp, he got word that his mother, Susan, had been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.

His message to her, she recalled, was one of comfort: “Hold on, Mom. I’ll take care of you.”

The 21-year-old lance corporal, however, was killed Nov. 14 when a roadside bomb exploded near the Humvee he was driving in Iraq’s Al Anbar province, west of Baghdad.

“Now I’m planning my son’s funeral,” his mother said. “It was supposed to be mine, not his. It’s really hard.”

Brown, who lived in the Sacramento County community of Foothill Farms, had been stationed in Iraq less than two months.

He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

He had enlisted in the Marine Corps in September 2005 after finishing an 18-month curriculum to be an auto mechanic and considering a career as a sheriff’s deputy, his mother said, adding that a lot of his friends had joined the military.

His mother, a school librarian, said she worried about his choice, which he hid from her until after he had signed up.

But “Timothy was proud to honor his country and he loved God,” she said. “He always told me, ‘When it’s time, no matter where I’m at, God’s going to call me.’ ... I’m honored to be his mom.”

She remembers him as a happy-go-lucky person who smiled easily and often, had lots of friends and enjoyed a good prank.

He was a standout athlete -- a varsity wrestler and soccer player at Sacramento’s Foothill High School.

One of his high school friends and wrestling teammates, Marine Sgt. Mark Carillo, who has served two tours of duty in Iraq, said Brown was an “always-in-the-mood-to-play-around-type of guy.... He was always jumping, smiling, laughing, always busy and always wanting to work.”

He said Brown particularly enjoyed deer hunting with his father, Richard Keith Brown of Wheatland, Calif., rebuilding his 1965 Ford Mustang and riding a motorcycle.

Brown was engaged to be married in the spring to his high school sweetheart, Ashley Milami, whom he began dating when he was 16. “They were madly in love and they had their whole lives planned,” his mother said.

Because her son was based in Hawaii, she said, his plan was to finish his tour in Iraq and be joined by Milami in Hawaii. Then they would return to the Sacramento area, where he hoped to work as a correctional officer and start a family.

“He told me he joined the Marines just a week before he left,” Milami told the Sacramento Bee. “I cried for a week. But all my friends are in the military, and he had wanted to go since he was 18. I thought it would be OK.”

Carillo said that to honor his friend’s sacrifice, an annual invitational wrestling tournament at Foothill High will be renamed the Timothy Brown Memorial Invitational.

In addition to his parents, Brown is survived by a brother, Richard Keith Brown Jr.; and a sister, Sabrina Brown, both of Foothill Farms.

ted.rohrlich@latimes.com