I just noticed the other day that I did a pretty crappy job of finishing my "31 days of Gratitude" assignment I started, like two years ago. I've now decided that as long as the 31 days are completed before I die, technically my commitment will be met.
Today I'm grateful for my brother Bryan (and not just because it's his birthday tomorrow.) Bryan is two years younger than me and for as long as I can remember he's always been around .... in my face ... for good or bad. I don't remember my life without Bryan in it. Most of my memories of him as a baby and toddler are good. Everyone agreed that he was a pretty good, sweet little kid. I couldn't say his name when I was two years old, so I called him "Pooder," and still do, which we unfortunately found out a few years ago is apparently a Spanish word for a female body part?
Anywhoo ....
Somewhere between 7-9 years old, Bryan morphed from my sweet, pudgy little brother into "Farkus" (you know, the awful bully from the classic movie A Christmas Story?) Farkus: my absolute nemesis and doer of all things sinister and obnoxious in our home. He even looked like Farkus there for awhile .... shaggy strawberry-blond hair, freckles, crazy teeth and had that same laugh that sent chills down my spine every time it echoed through the house. He would do everything from pull (no, wait - YANK) my hair constantly, to leave dried up dog poo under my bed covers, to random punches in the stomach or arm as we passed in the hall, to hanging up on anyone who ever called for me, and the list goes on and on. Carter (my brother 4 years younger than me) and I had to hang tough there together during those years .... and it wasn't easy for either of us, believe me!
But then,the heavens eventually opened, and Farkus slowly disappeared into the ether and was replaced with "Ferris" - the brother who's life is quite similar to Ferris Bueller - things pretty much always go his way. Yes, there were times that I felt like the annoyed older sister, hellbent on disrupting his oh-so-perfect life. But for the most part, I liked Ferris .... he was such a welcome change from Farkus, that none of us were about to complain.
Ever since high school, I've always known that Bryan had my back, and he knew I had his. He's been more like a big brother to me for the past 20 years - fiercely loyal and protective, always concerned about making sure that I had anything I needed - especially now as a single mom.
Last summer, amidst all of the chaos in my life with the divorce and moving, he would check in with me on a daily basis, helping financially, emotionally, and physically moving the girls and I to Salt Lake and making sure we were okay. After we'd been settled here at my parents for a few weeks, he came up to visit for a night and as he was leaving the next morning, had a sticky note for me with a list of things he wanted me to do the next day, which included opening an account at his bank so that he could easily transfer money to me if I ever needed it, and also to go get a suspicious mole checked on my shoulder that he had noticed when we were at the pool earlier that summer. Even though I was crazy busy with starting a new full-time job and dealing with the divorce, I knew Bryan would bug me about that mole because he had just had one removed a few months back and it was, indeed, Melanoma - which runs in the family between siblings.
I did get it checked, and it turned out mine was Melanoma as well. My doctor at Huntsman Cancer asked me what made me come in to get it checked, and when I told him my little brother insisted, he said "well you need to thank him ... he just might have saved your life if you had let that thing go several years."
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