My younger brother's posting on Facebook yesterday garnered my attention and tugged at my heartstrings. Larry's ability to paint a word picture provides a good overview of our brother.
He writes of Ronnie:
• You were the brightest and the best among us.
• When you were building those plastic airplanes in elementary, you already had a divine calling.
• When we went to WWII movies on a Saturday afternoon, sometimes you had to watch them twice.
• When you went to the Slide Rule club, it was about that calling.
• Always, whether it involved academics or physical fitness, it was about the reaching of a goal.
I still think of lessons learned from you and your enthusiasm for life.
Always, I have known a measure of confidence simply because I was your little brother.
Don and I have made it 50 years without you only because of God's grace and the fact that you are ensconced within our heart.
We will see you when we get there. Always!
Toward the end of the day yesterday, I received a text from a dear friend Ronnie and I made in the first grade. We had lunch together in Austin a couple of weeks ago. He told me that on our first day of school, he went home and told his mother: "I made a new friend today. There are two of them."
For all intents and purposes, Ronnie and I were a matched pair. Mother dressed us alike from birth through elementary school. We eventually joined ranks and convinced Mother that enough was enough. We wanted to dress differently as we began junior high. That didn't mean that when she purchased our clothing, she didn't get identical shirts. She did, but we didn't have to both dress the same way everyday.
From early on, there were notable differences between us. Ronnie was the quiet one. He always seemed serious. On the other hand, my giftedness had to do with laughter. I was the class clown, and if I say so myself, I was good at it. For that matter, nothing much has changed.
Nonesense comes easy for me. It is the more complicated stuff that poses a challenge for me.
From a positive standpoint, Ronnie and I both did well academically. We weren't Rhodes Scholars, but we were equipped to move forward after high school.
During high school, Ronnie excelled in math and science, and I still find both of those topics difficult. Is it possible that he absorbed all of my left-brain function while we were sharing space in womb? I'm convinced that Ronnie could have been nick-named Left Brain. The shoe would have fit.
I had the upper-hand over him in English class. Ronnie was both athletic and a geek at the same time. Seriously, he walked around with a slide-rule in his notebook. From my perspective, unless you were needing to draw a straight line, a slide-rule was absolutely worthless.
I was invited to co-emcee at our 50-year high school reunion. Who knows why? I also spoke at our high school graduation. I did pay our graduating class a complement. Our senior year in high school, Ronnie was voted by student body as one of the top ten student's most likely to succeed. I didn't even get honorable mention. My question for our graduating class was: "How did you know?" It garnered a laugh.
Throughout our childhood years Ronnie and I were pretty competitive. Of course, throughout childhood people would ask questions like: "Who's the smartest? Who's the fastest? Who's the toughest? The list for comparisons seemed endless.
After graduation from high school, we went to different colleges. Immediately, we moved from being competitive to simply being friends who loved and respected the other. The bond we always shared was one of closeness. We were a matched pair.
The text from the dear friend from first grade that I received last night said: "At some point, each day, he is in my thoughts. My daughter did a rubbing on one of her trips to Washington, D.C. She said that a man there asked who she was looking for and took her straight to his place on the wall."
Tears surfaced when I read the next line: "He left an empty place in me that has never been filled. It will be good to see him again one day."
How grateful I am for the years that Ronnie and I shared together. It was a gift.
All My Best!
Don
