Chapel
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
My oldest brother and I never really had a lot in common. We were a decade apart (I the younger) and were on two different stratospheres growing up. I didn't spend a lot of time with him growing up, but I always remember trying to learn from him. It wasn't always learning what to do, but rather what not to do. In his 20s, when he was catching hell from doing anything and everything that pissed our Dad off, I was in the background learning. As it turns out, I didn't learn what not to do, I just learned how to not get caught. Funny thing being the youngest of four.
I look back on my childhood and don't have a ton of memories with my brother. To be honest, I don't have a ton of memories of my younger days in general. The memories I do have, whether good or bad, I cherish because they are memories I still hold. What I do know is in the strangest of ways, poker has brought my brother and I much closer than we have ever been in our lives. We talk to each other much more often and regularly spend time with each other discussing or playing poker. It just so happens the love of the game affords us more opportunities to get away from the daily grind and spend time playing a game we love.
I write all this because I've been thinking about my brother, chapel, lately. Some of you may remember him from numerous blogger events he played in or the blog he started, then sort of stopped due to work obligations. The G-Vegas and Charlotte blogging crew will remember him from several blogging events, the most recent being the Mastodon weekend not that long ago at BadBlood's casa.
This past Friday I got a call from my Mom to let me know his house had burned down that morning. Apparently there was faulty wiring in the master bedroom and one of the outlets fried. Thankfully his two girls were at school and he and his wife were at work, so there were no casualties. That's ALL that matters. I tried to call that night, but understandably didn't get through.
After two full days of dealing with the stress, on Saturday night he decided to take a moment to flip the cap off of a Blue Moon and drink a beer. His last Blue Moon had been with me the Mastodon Weekend not that long ago and it reminded him of that night, so he decided to text me and see how I was doing. His house had burnt down the day before and he had lost everything, but he was texting me to see how I was doing. I was humbled.
I'm not writing any of this to ask for anything other than your thoughts and prayers. I know quite often bad things happen to good people and many times those good people have no where to go. Thankfully, in this instance, it looks as though insurance will do what they are paid to do, though there are many things to be worked out.
In the meantime, I just wanted my fellow bloggers who know chapel to be aware of his situation. I know it won't be long before he is itching to get away from the stress of dealing with it all and just get a break. To that end, I hope to make a trip that way soon and get him away from it all. Mayhaps a G-Vegas poker night will be in order if I can do some persuading. I hear there are some good underground games that only get raided every other game. I like them odds.
Stay strong bro. I think about you all the time.
posted by TripJax @ 12:55 AM,
6 Comments:
-
At 10:08 AM,
David Westbay said...
-
Best wishes to your brother and his family. I hope the insurance process goes as smoothly as possible.
-
At 12:42 PM,
Ingoal said...
-
What Dave said!
-
At 3:41 PM,
Schaubs said...
-
You are a good person, and a good brother.
My thoughts are with all of you. -
At 12:44 PM,
Unknown said...
-
My thoughts and prayers are with you and your brother.
-
At 10:53 PM,
PokahDave said...
-
Hopefully everything turns out right....best of luck to your bro.....
-
At 6:40 PM,
Paul said...
-
What a moving post. We treat poker as important as life and death and sometimes we need a reality check to jolt our priorities into what they should be.
Post a Comment