Happy Birthday My Sweet Brother!

This is December 12th, 2012, the 57th birthday of my only brother. We grew up in a three bedroom house on a paved road in the middle of Georgia. It was during the time when life seemed simple and times were not hard to us. We played all day long with neighborhood friends, we spent long days in school rooms with no air conditioning and never knew we needed it, we watched a black and white TV and screamed with the rest of the world when Ed Sullivan introduced the Beatles to the world. We chased lightning bugs after dark and put them in jars to light up our rooms and we thought it was amazing. We kicked footballs, chased baseballs, and played rock school on the brick steps of our house.

 We had a neighborhood full of kids who became life long friends and this year we buried two of them. My brother gave the eulogy at one and I do not know how he did it and at the other he sat and wept because time had separated them. When you face the later years you reflect on the good times and you recognize the bad in a different light than when you were living it.

 My brother was the favorite child of the family and the favorite friend of the neighborhood. Everyone loved him then and still do to this day. He is funny and always laughing, but more than his fun side, he is caring, deep down caring. He is the friend that everyone needs. He will laugh with you in the good times and fight with you when life treats you unfairly.

 He is a singer and a songwriter by night and a carpet salesman by day. He has written more songs than he can probably remember for weddings and funerals and just plain fun. He is called on by people who hardly know him to perform at funerals, because his words matter and they bring definition to the lives of the ones who have gone on and comfort to the lives of people who have been left behind.

 Our father died many years ago and he wrote a poem and did the eulogy. My dad loved my brothers music and wanted him to be able to go places with it. Once he moved to Nashville where the music he loves to make is celebrated and produced. He spent months there, but the break never came and he returned home to continue singing to the locals. You wonder how some make it and others do not. Is it all talent or is it who you know or who believes in you?

 My brother started singing and playing as a teen in his bedroom and today decades later he is still playing, writing, and singing. It is as much a passion today as it was then and though the lights of fame never came his gift of music has touched lives of so many, many whom he will never know. Recently I ran into a high school friend who had moved away for years and then returned to our community. He said I never knew back then when we were growing up that your brother could play and sing. He had heard him at an event several years before. It made me feel so proud of my brother.

 I have always believed in my brother, his gift of music, his gift of compassion, and his gift of words that have touched hearts and souls for a lifetime. Today I celebrate his birthday by remembering how good and how worthy his life is. I'm so proud to be his sister, so proud of the life he has lived, and all he has given to his family and to his friends along the way. Happy birthday my dear sweet brother, you may not have achieved music fame, but you are a psalmist to those who matter most, those who know and love you.