Every Little Girl Needs A Big Brother

On this day four years ago, my brother Bill was finally released from his battle with pancreatic cancer.  I don't talk about that much.  So I will move on quickly to talk about what made him such a great big brother.  When I was three my father was killed in a fire and my big brother, 16 at the time, decided his little sister needed someone to act like a dad in her life.  And he volunteered.  He took me fishing, let me sit in his lap and think I was really driving that car, came home from college to take me trick or treating, and was my escort to the Blue Bird Father/Daughter Banquet.

When I was a teenager Bill lived about 10 hours away.  We visited his home a couple of times each year.  During each visit he would take me on a date for pizza or something - just the two of us.  He would act like a gentleman and treat me like a lady and tell me that was how I should expect to be treated.  Years later when I became engaged to my husband, Bill called, and with a smile in his voice, he asked who the jerk was that thought he would dare to marry Bill's little sister!  He was just a tad bit protective.

The worktable I use in my studio was Bill's kitchen table.  We sat at it and talked many times.  It makes me feel like my big brother is still a part of my creative endeavor to have the table in my studio.


Here is a collage I created for him when he first got sick.  It says "Every little girl needs a big brother".  And the sun is saying "Go Pokes".  The man's blood ran orange for Oklahoma State University.  And he did a good job of brain washing his little sister.  In Bill's last months his little granddaughter was just learning to talk.  To his delight her first sentence was "Go Pokes!".

Bill always loved me, always believed in me, and always encouraged me to be all I could be.  And I miss him.  I hope you have someone like Bill in your life.  And I hope you can be someone like Bill in someone else's life.