Monday, January 24, 2011

Singer, Tenor, Brother, Hero


Valencia, Spain.... sculptures.

"To the outside world we all grow old.
But not to brothers and sisters.
We know each other as we always were.
We know each other's hearts.
We share private family jokes.
We remember family feuds and secrets,
family griefs and joys.
We live outside the touch of time."
~ Clara Ortega


The Tenor....

"Our siblings push buttons that cast us in roles we felt sure we had let go of long ago - the baby, the peacekeeper, the caretaker, the avoider.... It doesn't seem to matter how much time has elapsed or how far we've traveled." ~ Jane Mersky Leder


Stephen ... My brother... Happy Birthday! Posted by Picasa

"There is a little boy inside the man who is my brother.
Oh, how I hated that little boy.
And how I love him too."
~ Anna Quindlan
Today is my brother's birthday. We are nine years and nine days apart... not by design.. just happened that way. When I became a teenager, he turned four. When I graduated from high school and left for college, he was eight and in second grade. When I got married, he was twelve and an usher at the wedding. When he graduated from high school, I was in residency. He graduated from college two years before Nyssa was born... I had been married for eleven years. He joined the original traveling company of Phantom of the Opera in Chicago in 1990, when Nyssa was four. And now he is in Europe as a heldon tenor, free lance and all grown up. Now he is my hero, helping Nyssa pay for college when we hit a hard patch, buying this wonderful home for us to live in and generally being an all around nice guy. We miss him a lot and the visits seem too short and too far between. He misses the relaxation of being home and the glamour of world travel has long since worn off.

Of course we had our differences as children who were too far apart in age, but I have it on good authority that these differences would really have not been much different even if we had been four years or less apart. There were the arguments and the pranks he played and all that tattling. But looking back, he was just trying to act older and be with the older kids and teenagers because he wanted to be accepted by his sister and her friends. When I left for college, Stephen sent me cards in the mail. Some days that was the only mail that showed up in my box. He liked to send Peanuts cards, particularly Snoopy and Woodstock ones. He was in second grade and just starting to learn cursive writing so the letters were big and there never was enough room to write everything. But they were wonderful to me... I still have them.... NO, Stephen, I don't know exactly where they are without looking, but I know I still have them... somewhere.

Today we are good friends... the best of friends... there is no finer brother on the face of the earth... and I DO MEAN THAT!

Happy Birthday Stephen!

To go to Stephen's website click here.

(end of post)

7 comments:

Ginny Hartzler said...

What a beautiful post about your brother, and I finally get to see him!! Does he read your blog? Does HE have a blog? I love sculpture of the tenor, and the poem is really georgous. 

sandra said...

the circus is in a 2 story high building and covers 3800 sq feet to answer your question from yesterday.

this is suc a wonderful story, and you are blessed to have a brother like he is. he is very handsome and must be very kind and caring when it comes to you. the sculputre is marvelous. your story brought back memorys. i have one brother, no sisters. he was 4 years younger than me, he did the tease/tattle thing most of his life. at age 15 he was best man at my wedding, he went to Vietnam and i waited anxiously for letters from him, he sent funny humoros stories but never mentioned the horrors over there. once we were watching the news and saw him jump off a helicopter and the phone rang for hours, people saying did you see David on TV? he lives 10 hours away from me now, and i see him at funerals and weddings and a visit about every 2 or 3 years. thanks for the story and the memory's it jogged up.

Colleen said...

I love to read of the bond between siblings.  I so understand, having two sisters of my own.  We are  the lucky ones. 

Happy, Happy Birthday Stephen!

kenju said...

Happy Birthday, Stephen!! 

I have always wanted a brother, SRP. You are lucky.

kenju said...

Happy Birthday, Stephen!! 

I have always wanted a brother, SRP. You are lucky.

colleen said...

I honestly thought it was a scarecrow.  I love how proud you are of your brother.

Michelle said...

Happy Birthday Stephen....it is great to have siblings .....Love that statue...