My Brother

Dad seems to obsess about my brother. He is a doctor in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He and his wife have 2 elementary school-age childern with very busy social schedules. This means they don't get down to see us very often. So...Dad talks about them endlessly. Or, rather, he talks about my brother endlessly.

About a week after my brother's last visit, Dad decided that he would never see my brother again. He started crying and saying, " He's gone. He won't come again. And that's it." "He left and that is true of him."

Later, Dad decided that there was a problem because I was here, but my brother wasn't. He decided that my brother must somehow be neglected and/or abused. This was during the period that Dad thought that he was in his 40s. Even though I explained to him that he was 87, his childern were grown, and my brother had childern of his own, Dad was still convinced that my brother was being mistreated.

Last night, Dad was talking about my brother's name. His first name was chosen long before he was born because we have a long-standing family tradition of naming boys after their grandfathers. My mother told us years ago that my brother's middle name was one of her favorite names. She had wanted to give that name to her son even before my parents met.

Dad was saying "I had to name my son all of a sudden." (as if he didn't have 9 months warning). "I had to name my son, so I named him." "And that's his name today. That is true of him."