Life Is Too Brief Sometimes

Last Friday morning at 4:56 am, December 4th, 2009 my brother died. He was two years younger than me. He was much too young to die.

My mom, his son and my sister were all able to see him before he died, thanks to two of his friends (Terry & Wendy) who had gone down to visit him. They were able to get him to the hospital and contacted my sister who flew down to Florida right away and then she contacted my mother, his son (age 26), and me. We flew down the next day and went straight to the hospital where his son had to make the very tough decision to pull the life support and let him go. I stayed the night with him and was with him as he breathed his last breath. Then we got to deal with the red tape of getting his body from Florida to Toronto.

We spent 3 1/2 hours in a funeral parlour while a gentleman filled out paperwork. We thought he was the janitor as he greeted us in jeans and a shirt that looked like it had been attacked by cats - it had picks all over it. Where was the suit and the solicitous concern that is shown by the funeral directors and staff in our Canadian funteral homes? He even went on to tell us what he would do with my brother's body, things his son did not need to hear at that time. We learned that the body could not be shipped out for almost a week due to the Health regulations that had to be followed in order to get the required paperwork, since this was Friday afternoon and he could do nothing more until Monday.

My brother had gone down to Florida at the end of October to finalize the renovations on the condo that he had bought. He had barely moved in when he became too sick to enjoy it. We were to have joined him for Christmas this year, but the cancer took him too soon.

Life will not be the same without him.

At his funeral service, there were several people who spoke about him - a business partner, his sailing club, the Lion's Club (he had been given an Award of Merit that had only been given out 6 times in the past 28 years just last year), his riding club, his cousin, and myself. Each talked about the lives he had touched, the many things he had done and what a wonderful person he was. They touched on his love of "beer, butt, bike and books" as well as his caring and love of family and friends, and the number of people who attended attested to the fact that he touched many lives.

Life for the rest of us goes on......... but you will be missed - Rest in peace my brother. I pray that you are finally at peace.

Your big sister
Fran