My Brother Has Passed Away

Early Thursday evening, at 6:19 pm, the call I’d been dreading for so many months finally came. It was my sister-in-law letting me know of my brother’s passing. Though I’ve had months to prepare for this, there is still an air of unreality about it all. Is it really over? Is he really gone?

I’m grateful to all of you for the kind and comforting words you have written to me since I first mentioned my brother’s illness at Cathy’s World back in December. When the initial diagnosis (of a terminal nerve disorder) was made in October - my brother’s doctors gave him two to five years to live. In June, the prognosis worsened, his remaining time reduced to just a few months.

I don’t know that I can say much more here than in my August 8 post at The Festering Swamp, but I’ll try. I have never lost a member of my immediate family before, so this is an entirely new (and very unwelcome) experience. Why did this happen to him? At forty years of age with a wife and two kids, he should have been in the prime of his life.

Back on August 8, I wrote of how my brother’s condition had compelled me to reevaluate my life and the course it was taking. Oddly enough, I’ve found myself infused with a new spirit of optimism, a determination to correct what has gone wrong, attend what has been neglected, and awake what has long been dormant.

Richard did not live his life in vain, and neither shall I.

Rest in peace, my brother.