Saying Goodbye To my Brother

It has taken me several days to be able to write this post.  At first I started not to. No one really knows a lot about me.  I mean I just started this blog a couple of weeks ago I don’t have to share anything right?  But I wanted to because this blog will be a part of me and a place where I will be able to share things in my life.  So with a deep breath here goes:

Last week my older brother Allen died.  He was a wonderful person.  I couldn’t even begin to tell you in this short space what a great brother, father, husband, son, grandfather, friend etc. that he was.  He was a veteran.  He has had some medical issues for several years and just last month had a double bypass.  He was at home after the surgery but he never seemed to fully start to recover.

I was a late in life child so my brother was a teenager when I was born,  I come from a large family of seven children,  he was the most fun and he had such a wonderful sense of humor.  He played games with me and my younger brother.  We played “Name That Tune”  he would use his cassette tapes and stop the tape player just before the title of the song was sung.  He took us to the movies and to play ball.  When I was just a toddler I would climb into bed with him every morning and he would tell me the most wonderful stories.

Saturday February 10th was his Birthday I called him.  I had been battling a cold and didn’t want to risk getting him sick.  I only talked for a couple of minutes because his breathing sounded labored.  I told him when he got to feeling better that we would have a huge celebration.  I told him I loved him.  On the following Tuesday he quietly passed away.

So we did have the celebration with tears, laughter, lots of food, you know how we are in the south.  We had visitors that we hardly ever get to see.  We had singing and music  and flowers and we told stories over and over again.  We had to have the celebration without my brother Allen physically being there but I have no doubt he was with us in spirit and will continue to be every day.

Goodbye to my brother Allen until we meet again.