Eulogy for my Brother

We have known my Brother was dying for about 6 months now. He had ALS and although he had just been officially diagnosed, he had the symptoms for quit some time. His decline over the last 6 months has been very rapid.

Before my Brother died, I kind of assumed it would not affect me much, I mean we were not close in any meaningful way. We had not talked much in decades and even when we did, our conversations tended to be shallow and I hate to say it, but uninteresting. Neither of us made any effort to change that, even in the last months of his life.

However, I find that is not the case at all. Even though we not been close since we were teenagers, there was a time when we were. We grew up together, we did things together, we had adventures together and we even had many of the same friends. When I say that, I of course mean, he and his friends let me hang around them sometimes.

You know he was the one who taught me to play chess. I remember the first time I beat him, how happy I was. Incidentally, that was also the last game we ever played, LOL, yes, I think that is funny.

My Brother taught me to drive, actually both of my Brothers were tasked with teaching me to drive. My Mother had taught them to drive and her revenge for that was they had to teach me. However, my older Bother was out of the house by then and so the majority of the teaching was done by the middle son. I cannot say whether or not he was a good teacher or not, but I did manage to learn to drive and eventually get my license with out killing anyone, so I am sure he considered that a win.

I also remember a conversation we once had about the turn of century, he said we would live to see the 21st century and that I would only be 38 years old. Of course being in the 4th grade at the time, that seemed an impossible amount of time in the future. Of course I started to imagine flying cars and jet packs, I am still disappointed about that by the way.

When I discovered my inner dialog, I thought everyone could hear it as well, it was my Brother who explained to me that that was not the case, I was probably 4 at the time.

I think I will miss him.