We celebrated my brother’s life 2/22. For someone who wanted to be a hermit, he sure knew a lot of people. I think over 400 people showed. What a testament to his life and how he touched others.
The location was perfect. A lodge on a lake the he fished and jogged around and in the last year still tried to walk around. The large windows faced the lake and falling snow.
My sisters and I created a slide show for him. Our tribute.
I could not talk at his service but I had the following read. I took out the names as I am still not sure if I want people to know who I am.
I have been doing a lot of writing about my brother the last few days, one would think I am out of things to say. Anyone who knows me will know I always have something else to say.
Sometimes when someone passes everyone talks about how wonderful and perfect the person was. So let me start by saying he teased me constantly, tricked me over and over (I fell for the same prank more than once), knew exactly what buttons to push, and he was hugely competitive sometimes he would do anything to win. He hating to lose to anyone especially his youngest sister and we had to play Boggle with a dictionary to catch the words he would make up. When he realized he would never win that game he refused to play.
Now that I have that out in the open, let me say he was wonderful and perfect. He took me fishing even though he knew I would talk the entire time and scare the fish away. When I was 15 he took me to college with him where I spent my spring break attending classes. I did not know how much I would love that, but he knew I would. When I was 18 and he was 26 he took me with him to one of his baseball tournaments in Eastern Washington. When we got back I got sick and he stayed on the floor with me for three days and brought me anything I needed. He always made me laugh, and laugh, and laugh.
We watched some videos of him this weekend and I was reminded of how vibrant he was, how much making others laugh and be happy was important to him. I believe he showed how he loved others by his actions…baking, making us laugh, teaching us to fish, and remembering little details about us. How hard these last few months must have been for him as some of these avenues slipped away from him. How hard it must have been for him to watch our hearts break when he spent his whole life making us laugh. But he never lost his sense of humor, making us laugh till the end, despite our tears.
We honor him with stories, memories and laughter. His wife and kids will have no doubts how much He is loved and missed. His wife brought out the best in him and I see many pieces of him in his kids. They embody many of his qualities and will find their own way to pass on his legacy.
There are so many things I do not know about my brother. In this last year I got to meet him many times over through how other people see him.
I am proud to be his sister. He is beautiful.
