Dear Jack,

Dear Jack,

I’ve been thinking about you. I’ve been thinking of some of the silly things you use to do.

Remember in high school your exotic taste for food. Do you remember when you brought home caviar and octopus? You even said you like those things. Remember the time that you took an eel to a pig roast at the church. You stuffed a radish in its mouth to make it look like the roasted pig.

When we were kids, I think you enjoyed playing big brother and giving me a hard time. Remember the bathroom line? We had one bathroom and with four kids there always seemed to be a line. Whenever we were in line and if you happened to be anywhere near me, you would give me Indian burns on my arm or rub my head with your fist. Remember my Barbie Dolls? I would love to hear again what happened to all of their hands and feet. Remember chewing on them and ruining every one of them?

You did have a nickname for me. You always called me “Brenna.” You are the only one who ever called me that and ever will. You called me that your entire life.

Mom also made for an easy teasing target for you. You seemed to be more cunning than her. Remember when you would borrow money from her then put a spin on it and trick her into owing you? Or, if she borrowed money from you, you would somehow manage to get her to pay you back twice.

I think all the practice of deceiving mom paid off when you became so fascinated by magic. You were very good at slight of hand. You even did magic tricks for the kids at church.

I know you remember the poem “Lias Lias” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar that mom used to quote to us when we were kids? You could quote that poem word for word. We used to quote it together. Even in the hospital, when you could not speak, I quoted it to you and you smiled in acknowledgement

You were always a smart kid. You read a lot of books. You even tried to memorize the phone book.

Then, you moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

By the way, what was up with the time we came to visit you in New Mexico and you weren’t there –you were on vacation in California. Anyway, when you did get back to New Mexico you took us to some very exciting places. You took us to see the mountains. Remember how you loved the mountains. You also took us to a Mexican restaurant. You only like the food if it made you sweat.

I will never forget when you moved back home from New Mexico. You pulled up with three big dogs in your car. Only you would drive clear across the country with three big dogs, in a small car, in the middle of the summer.

Remember when you first arrived home from New Mexico and you went around trying to find out who everyone was? You went around to all the kids and asked if they were related to you. You hadn’t seen any of your nieces or nephew for sometime. But, when you discovered who everyone was, you took pride in having them as your nieces and nephews.

As an adult you still didn’t let up on teasing me. In our adult Sunday School class, you would pass out the take home papers and without fail you would either not give me one or hit me with it or anything to hassle me.

Remember leading singing at church. I can still picture you sitting up there in front of the church and make silly faces at people. I am not sure if you did that on purpose or not, but you could always get a smile out of me.

Do you remember when I was expecting Zachary? You thought that we should name him Obendigo, you almost insisted on it. You called him that even after he was born. I don't know why, you just thought that was a good name for him. He enjoyed spending time with you and picking your brain on things of nature. You taught him a lot about outer space, rocks, cactus and such. He learned about God’s creation from you.

Mindi(Minni) will never forget your teasing her about her fake nails. Remember telling her that they were from a corpse? She would try to touch you with them and you would make faces and try to keep her away from you. Even in the hospital you took her hand and squished up your face at her nails. And do you remember your secret handshake with her? You would walk up and the two of you would wiggle your fingers together. She might not want to admit it, but she enjoyed your teasing, because she knew you loved her.

Remember the time you took Adam scraping? You were driving slowly through the city of Englewood. When out of now where came a policeman. He pulled you over and told you two guys to go home. He said that you were driving around aimlessly.

Remember the 15 bowling balls that you added to mom’s garden to make a “bowling ball garden.”

Remember how much you loved Halloween? You would carve very detailed scary pumpkins. You would dress up in scary costumes and put on scary make up. Then you would sit out front and say in your scariest and spookiest voice, “Bring me the children.”

Remember this past Thanksgiving when we were all going around and saying what we are thankful for. According to you, I took too long in coming up with something and you gave me a hard time. Even with all your teasing I knew what I was thankful for. I didn’t express all of it then. But, along with being thankful for the rest of our family, I am thankful for you, Jack. When you came home from New Mexico, we talked and shared childhood memories. You could remember much more than I could. But, it was wonderful to have you to share those memories and you could always make me laugh.

You were very personable. You never meet a stranger. You found a job that you loved, working at Good year. I guess selling tires and having the opportunity to talk to people all day, was just up your alley.

I don't know all the reasons that you decided to come home, but I do think God brought you home. I think he may have brought you to Ohio to give you enough time to build a strong relationship with Him, before He would take you Home to live with him. I am so glad He gave me this opportunity to get to know you all over again.

But, best of all you came to love the Lord. Even in the hospital, as weak as you were, you prayed with anyone who would pray with you. You nodded a definite “yes” when anyone asked you if you loved the Lord. I told the Lord that the desire of my heart was that he would make you well and leave you here with us. But, if He was not going to do that, I asked that he would take you home quickly. He did. The last thing that I said to you was that I loved you and for you to go see Jesus. I know that’s what you did.

I love you, Jack, and I always will. You will be greatly missed.

Your little sister,

Brenna