Happy Birthday Jay

He was almost thirteen when I was born, and nearly 31 when he died.  We had eighteen years together, most of which were spent with me drooling etc. or, much later on,  partying.  In between my drooling and partying, my brother Jay managed to start his young adult life, fight off cancer, marry and settle down with his high school sweetheart, and together they were thrilled to have a baby son, considered miraculous after his chemo and radiation treatments.  Between the bad timing of our respective lives we never had much time to just be together.  I feel like I never really got to know him for myself, but mostly through stories and photos. Though, thankfully he made some serious efforts to be involved in the life of his little brother, creating memories that I carry to this day.  Two in particular stand out, both occurring sometime between the ages of  9-11 for me.  Jay took me to my first game at Fenway along with a friend of mine and a friend of his. I don't remember much in the way of specifics (a win against KC maybe?) but it's just cool that my first Sox game was with my big bro.  The other was a hike we took on the Long Trail.  Just the two of us on a two day, one overnight hike, the highlights, for me, at the time were a fellow hiker spearing a porcupine behind our shelter at night and missing church on Sunday (told you, I was ten...).  But the point is, he took the time to do some special stuff with me, I appreciated it at the time, but I appreciate it even more now.

I hardly knew you, Jay.  But I really miss you. Happy Birthday.

Love,
 your little bro

Peace to the planet...