My Brother Gary

I remember, about thirty years ago, my sister telling me that she feels bad for me because I will have to bury all of my siblings. She said that because I am the baby of the family and when I was born, my siblings were 12, 14, 16, and 18. My sister is gone now, for many years. Before her death, we lost my oldest brother. Last Sunday, we lost my brother, Gary, closest in age to me. That leaves me and my big brother Jim.

Gary was a wonderful brother. He loved these three things in, I think, almost equal measure: family, the outdoors, and laughter and having fun. I am lumping his love for his wife, Nancy, in with family, though their love for so many years was something I always looked up to and could never quite replicate.

He got me my first job, working for Pfizer in a pigments factory in Slatington. It was my first job in anything but retail, so he watched over me, showed me the ropes, and helped me fit in. I remember him once calling me in the middle of the night to tell me that our factory was on fire. We drove together to Lehigh Gap to see our futures go up in smoke.

I bought my first house from Gary and Nancy. As a first time home owner, I was basically winging it. It was good that he lived near me and was always there to help me out, like a big brother should. Luckily, he was the mechanically handy George brother.

Gary hosted our annual George New Years Day touch football game in his back yard. I knew our tradition was coming to an end the year he said that maybe he would just be quarterback for both sides. He was getting older, we all were. It ended maybe two years after that, but remains one of my favorite family memories.

I mentioned his love of laughter and having fun. Here are just some random memories of this fun loving guy. I was about six when he taught me how to make a fart machine from a coat hanger and a rubber band. We would sit on them at dinner and, and at inappropriate times, lift our cheeks and burst into laughter. He would never say Achoo! when he sneezed. No, Gary said Ah Horseshit!. At our Thanksgiving dinner he would always be the first to say “All this work, and dinner is over already”. The funny thing there is, in our patriarchal family, the men did almost no work that day! He would always have funny stories to tell. When anyone he knew finds out I am his brother, they tell me what a nice guy he was. I could go on forever with Gary stories. But just one more. He was never very domesticated as far as household chores, but he said when he retires he just wants to bake pies.

I miss him. I always looked up to him. The way he loved Nancy. The way he raised his kids. His love of the outdoors, which I share. I looked up to his sense of fun and the balance he was able to achieve in his life between work and home and personal pursuits.

An ending quote: “My brother may not always be at my side, but he is always in my heart”.