So, I looked it up in Websters and all I got was "Kinsman". Checked the Thesaurus thought it would give me some great compare words, no help there either. That's it. Nothing to be found about friend who is trustworthy, won't tell mom on you when you deserve to be tattled on, confidant, babysitter, chauffeur, someone who tells you you look skinny, available 24/7, someone who loves ice cream as much as you do, collector of rubber bands, saver of Christmas peppermint sticks, lover of Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, Sunday funnies and Archies. Someone who loved his family so much he was glad he was the one who was sick so we wouldn't have to endure the physical pain that he endured the last half of his life. Friend to everyone who knew him, one of the few people you could truly say, "to know him was to love him". He really was everyone's friend....young and old alike. I was hoping to find all that summed up in one word b/c that's what kind of brother Jimmy was to me. 9 years ago on Feb 27th he died. This was the first year I didn't get to go to Jimmy's grave on the day he died. ( I was out of town).
My earliest memories were of him fixing my hair and putting every single barrette and hair bow that I owned in my hair. I remember him and a friend picking me up at school in a limo for my 14th birthday. I remember being 12 and being on the school bus and slapping a 16 yr old across the face b/c he called Jimmy "no-neck". I remember he and Bert getting into an argument the night I got engaged. I remember him crying at my wedding. I remember he and Tyler lying in his hospital bed eating pop-tarts and watching Camelot. I remember sitting by his bedside one time when he was really sick and singing songs and he waking up and telling my what a beautiful voice I had(he had to have been heavily sedated). I remember him coming to Americus, Ga and staying with me for a month at a time and helping me when my boys were just babies and I had EG on the way and Bert was working crazy hours. Oh yes, we fought, argued did all those things siblings do and I have so many things I would give anything to be able to do over. I wish I could have made it to Tn to be w/ him more. He was so lonely when he was confined to his bed and couldn't get up anymore, couldn't leave his room. I wish so bad he could have seen my kids grow up and meet our sweet Sophie. I wish he would have been able to find the love of his life and live happily ever after. I wish he would have been physically whole here on earth.
Finally, my last and most favorite memory of my sweet brother is one that the nurses who were w/ him when he died told...they said as he was passing they felt a presence in the room and felt like they needed to take their shoes off b/c it felt like they were standing on holy ground. That might not mean much to you but I know it was b/c his heavenly escort was there to take him home to be w/ the Lord, and that he finally had his ultimate healing.
