Today, 8 years ago, my brother passed away. He was only 23.
He died while out riding his motorbike. He hit a Dodge Ram pickup
almost head on. Hit right on the corner of the drivers side, right by the
headlights. He was wearing his helmut. He was just out in a rural area
looking for some trails and around the corner he came and around the corner a truck came. He was out enjoying himself with a friend.
He was broke to pieces.
I still can remember the call so vividly. I was at work. I was working the
lunch shift of a split shift. I was waiting tables at that time. My
sister-n-law called me and told me to call my step-mom. You see,
my brother and I did not share the same mother. But I never saw my little brother as my half brother.
NEways, I kept asking my sis-n-law to tell me why? Why do I need to call
my step-mom? I kept thinking did something happen to my dad? Why should I call my step-mom over that when they were divorced?
I kept asking her why and then she finally told me that my brother was dead and I remember screaming. I remember that I instantly felt sick and I was sobbing uncontrollably. I remember my manager trying to help me. My world was a blur. I remember trying to call my dad, but he and my brother (sis-n-law's husband) were golfing. Kept trying to reach my sister but she wasn't answering her cell phone. I think my sis-n-law came and picked me up and I can remember her picking up my husband from a bar that he was watching some sporting event with his brothers.
I just remember the absolute horror and shock. I can remember seeing my dad cry the most devastasting pitiful cries. I can remember not wanting to leave my father's side. I didn't want him to be alone. We, my husband and I, rode with him back to where my dad lives, my old hometown. They were bringing my brothers body back from the rural county he was in. I remember I had to see him. I had to see him before the funeral home was going to embalm him. My father pleaded with me not go see him but I had to. And when I went into that room and he was laying there so pale but as tho he was sleeping. There was a sheet covering his body and I could see that one of his legs was sticking out
where it was broken. My step mother was beyond devastation. This was her only son. I hugged her. She felt colder than my brother. She kept touching him and looking under the sheet and it was just beyond words the utter devastation, hurt, anger, sadness that was in that room.
I could see that his neck was swollen. The crash broke his neck.
I kissed his forehead and left the room. And as I left I broke down.
I could not believe he was gone...just like that. My little brother was gone. We were only 4 years apart. I taught him to draw and to dance. I played Barbi's with him. He either was the Lone Ranger or The Incredible Hulk. I beat the tar out of him with Johnnny batter-ups or
brooms. Sent him to the hospital for stitches. I was mean to him when were kids. I resented him becuz he was her son. I was her step-daughter.
She loved him. He could do know wrong. I was the abused step-daughter. As a child, I took out my anger on him. But I loved him, too. Siblings do fight. As we grew older, we grew apart and eventually when I was 19 I moved away. But before he died, I felt we were becoming closer. I understood my childhood jealousy and resentment. He was my brother and my friend.
As I write this, I do feel my eyes tearing up. I just remember how funny he was and how handsome he become. He worked out all the time. Tall, fair, cut abs and what a sense of humor. What a catch! Had a great job, lived with his girlfriend in a cute house. He could dance! Had a boat. Nice truck. So much going for him. And in an instant, he was snatched up from this Earth....snatched up to a better place.
So today, I dedicate this blog to him. I wish so badly he was here. I guess I still can't believe he is gone.
You know, I got married two weeks after he died. He was coming to our wedding. I went thru with the wedding since things were already paid for and dates had been booked. I wish he could have been there. I know he was there in spirit. We toasted to him that night as we stood under the stars. I think him always when I see the stars twinkling, when I pass a channel with somebody fishing, or if I see a hawk soaring in the air,or when I see the Dukes of Hazzard or Night Rider (he loved those shows) or if I see someone suffering from asthma or allergies (since he did so bad) when I see a gray Nissan truck, when I look at my grill on my back porch --he brought that grill over to me and my husband from my dad's (two weeks before he died) or my first tatoo on my right leg, just above my ankle. It is a heart with his intials. He probably wouldn't have wanted me to do that. But I did it anyway.
Every year in the the hometown paper, I put something in the paper in memory of him. This year I missed the deadline and had to put in for two days past the actual day. Made me feel so bad but it's gonna be there! I didn't forget. I could never forget.
I miss him. Wonder what life would have been like with him in it?