Saturday, April 3, 2021
Charles was my big brother, I called him Butch. He was 8 years my senior. We never played games or hung out. He did on occasion babysit me. He would pull tricks on me. He would let me stay up past my bed time & then when mom & dad would pull onto our acre long driveway he would tell me that I had better get to bed. I would run to the stairs to try to get to my room only to find that he had placed kitchen chairs on the steps blocking me. I remember one time he took a Bobbi pin & twisted into some shape & heated it to red hot on the stove & then chased me around the house to try to brand me - I was much too young to realize it would have cooled off long before he reached me. There was the time when I was upstairs in my room that he crinkled paper downstairs saying the house was on fire ( thinking the paper sound would make me believe him.) Or the time I swallowed a pit from a purple plum, it hurt my throat so much! He pretended to call the doctor. Reading these you probably think I hated him but I didn’t, he was my big brother & I loved him. I don’t think we ever agreed on much from politics to movies. He thought Blazing Saddle was the funniest thing ever I thought it was stupid. He knew Barack Obama didn’t have a chance in hell of winning & when he did I made sure to call him up to let him know. I think the only thing we had in Common was that we loved each other & our mom. After our mom died he would constantly call me I think as a replacement for her. He never got over her death. My brother loved corny jokes & constantly told them to me even though he knew I never found them funny. He had a big heart that most people never saw. He loved his family & his animals. He had dreams of being cowboy. He lived for a while in Hawaii & after he moved back to the states he never flew again. Planes scared him & so did hospitals. He had Parkinson’s the last few years of his life which I know made him feel useless & miserable. I miss him everyday & find myself thinking that I should call him to see how he is. I love you big brother RIP.
