RIP LITTLE BROTHER

I always thought that I took care of my brother but my brother took care of me also. My brother, Paul, was born 14 years after I was born. I was a freshmen in high school. When he was a baby my sister, who was 11 years older then him would take him to the park, the store, walks around the block and almost everywhere we went. People used to think that I was a teenaged mom. I would always have to explain that I was his older sister not his mother. Some people believed me and some didn't. But, we didn't care. After being two for so long we were now 3.

As Paul got older he was diagnosed with Autism. Back then I got the impression that not a lot of people had it or knew what it was especially in the small city we lived in. For all of his school years he was in special education and for a time my mom rode the bus with him. Some days he would cheerfully get on the bus and other times he would want nothing to do with the bus and school. It was a daily struggle for him and most days my mom had to convince him that it was best to go to school and he did. He was a loner though. He kept to himself and when he learned how to write cursive that is the only form of writing he did until the end of his life. He never printed anymore just cursive and wanted nothing to do with a computer except a tablet where he could go online and look up sports scores and go on Amazon and look up sports attire.  If you asked him who won the world series in 1922 he would be able to tell you and tell you the score of the game. He knew how many times the Oakland A's won the world series, how many times the Warriors won the NBA finals and he would watch every single sports game on TV. My mom got the ESPN sports channels for him so he could watch everything from college baseball, to hockey. And he truly did and he truly loved every game and watched every game he could. It would not be unusual for him to have the TV on the scores on half of the screen and the game on the other half. He knew all the scores at any given time.

Paul loved to collect quarters from every state. He had a state quarter map where he would put the quarters when he got them. I do believe at one time he had every state quarter on the map. He loved to make kool aid for the whole family. On the day he died he made a bottle of kool aid. He always kept a least one made bottle in the fridge. He loved sprite soda too and I tried to keep him some in the house and when I went to the corner store I always got him a can.

Paul in his quiet way would make sure that everyone had everything that they needed. He made sure that my mom had her TV channels changed to her soaps in the daytime and early in the morning he made sure that my nephew could watch Madlock at 10 ME TV. And if my nephew was at work he made sure Wendy Williams Show was on for me. I like the hot topics. He would make sure that at the end of the day he would record shows that we would watch together all the shows on the Food channel and the kid cooking and baking shows and the kids BBQ shows he would record for us and some shows on the ID channel. He knew that I liked to watch all that and he always made sure that he recorded them for me to watch and my mom would watch too. He would always record all the Charlie Brown specials for my son and WWE for my son and nephew.  He never would say anything you just would be sitting and he would put it on for you.

He loved keeping the house clean. Especially his room. His room was basically neat and orderly and he vacuumed every single day in his room. His bed was always made and his things were always stacked and put in their places. He didn't mind sharing his room with my son and nephew. Around 6pm every evening he would come out to eat and watch TV and didn't mind if either of them went in and watched TV. He would go to bed at 11 on the dot every night. He used small flashlights for night lights and would always make sure the trash in the bathroom and kitchen were taken out promptly in the morning after he got up. He liked to mop and always kept the kitchen and bathroom floors clean. He never complained if I asked him to help me with something like putting up my box spring for my new bed. He willingly would help you with anything you asked and never complained. He rarely lost his temper and was so kind. Kind enough to give you the shirt off his back literally. If you needed it and he had it he would gladly give it to you no mater what it was. There was many times that my son borrowed a dollar from him to make a trip to the corner store and he never asked to be paid back. (of course I made my son pay him back).

So, when yesterday afternoon came and my sister was visiting and we hadn't seen him come out for dinner we knew something was wrong. We heard him making noises like he was gasping for air and rushed to his room. We tried to take care of him but his heart gave out and we couldn't. We could start his heart again and it broke our hearts. He was our little brother that always took care of us as much as we took care of him.