Vegas stole my brother

A lot of people have siblings. Sometimes they are close with their siblings. My sibling, my brother, is so much more then a brother to me. Most don’t understand our relationship. My brother is my best friend, my parent, my biggest advocate and my biggest cynic. He’s the one person who could slap me in the face and tell me my idea is stupid, and I would actually listen. I value others opinions, but my brother’s approval is the one I need to make a decision. We fight each other’s battles, we encourage each other, we parent each other and we love each other. In a life that held some unpredictable occurrences, my brother has been the true constant through out. I have a few best girl friends, but my brother was the one I needed by my side when I got married.

From the time Jon was born we have had a special relationship. My Mom wrote in his baby book that even as a baby, whenever I cried Jon was very concerned. She also wrote how much I loved my baby brother. I’ve asked my Mom what she did to encourage our relationship as we were growing up. She said we always had to share. One of us wasn’t allowed to have something unless we shared it. We also relied a lot on each other for amusement. We didn’t watch a lot of tv and didn’t have video games when we were little, so we were forced to play games with each other. Even to this day, if you were to sit us in a room with nothing to do, we would probably get a good game of “I’m thinking” going. We share so many inside jokes and stories that half the time no one else in the room knows what we are talking about. I’m also pretty sure I’m the one person that will laugh at every single one of his jokes – even if they’re not that funny.

Our relationship has often been difficult on those we’ve dated. I can’t imagine dating someone whose sister was his best friend. Or dating someone knowing that almost every aspect of our relationship was going to be discussed with their sibling. Lucky for me, Dustin knows how much I love and respect him, but has also accepted the fact that I’m usually going to go to my brother for the really tough decisions.

This time last week, Jon was on his way to Las Vegas. To live. I’m so proud of him and who he has become. In a sense, it’s like being proud of your child because I know that I helped Jon become who he is today – a very mature, capable, driven, ambitious, intelligent, creative, caring and loving brother. I’m going to miss him more then words can express. Most of all, I’m going to miss how excited Clover gets when she knows we’re going to see him.