Thinking Back

I really shouldn't write this blog, because it's the kind that becomes about you and you really don't want it to be that. The simple act of writing it, I suppose, makes it about you. Still, I think, I hope, that I may be making a worthwhile statement, so I'll go ahead just the same.

My brother-in-law passed away this week. I always liked the guy well enough. We never had a cross word between us that I recall, yet for years I never felt we had found a comfort zone with one another. It was as though we weren't ever quite on the same page. Our conversations were always civil enough but in my mind stilted, as though there was a space between us, a gap that we couldn't quite bridge.

Then when my wife told me he had died, the first thing I remembered was a baseball game he and I were at at old Tiger Stadium back during Detroit's World Series run in 1984. It was a great evening. We had fun over a couple of beers. There were some pickup ball games and rounds of golf back in the day too.

Soon I was thinking about a few good favors he did for me and my family over the years. I thought about when he arranged for his son, my nephew, to set me up for a practical joke at a Boy Scout meeting one night. It was funny, I have to admit.

Before long I was thinking, man, I'm gonna miss the big lug. Maybe we were more on a level than I thought.

Goodspeed, Chuck, and you're in my prayers.