Brothers

As we were driving around the turns heading towards the South Umpqua Falls it never failed...every year...the inevitable noise of my brother pretending like he was going to throw up. Now mind you, he didn't really get car sick, he did this out of shear torture, because I hated it when people threw up, and he wanted to tease me. Whether it was the sick noises, polywogs down the pants, rubber fishing worms mixed in with my candy gummy worms, or trying to scare me with ghost stories, I could always count on my brother to be in on it.

It's interesting to watch my two boys who are 3 1/2 years a part. Some days they drive each other crazy, and other days they are the best of friends. I suppose that is normal in a lot of families, after all, brothers do know what buttons to push. I tend to think they push the buttons purposely and often. Growing up, I'm sure I drove my brother crazy all the time. I was a bit dramatic, and he would pull it out of me. However, I never thought it was fair when he would instigate something, but I would get in trouble for screaming.

One of the most memorable moments I have with my brother was on my wedding day. My whole life, he would tease me, draw funny faces on my posters hanging in my room, hang my dolls up from my ceiling fan, or put life size poster people in the shower to scare me. But, on this day, he was different. There was a look in his eyes, when he cornered me after the wedding, and simply said I looked beautiful, and hugged me. I will never forget that moment, a moment when I knew he loved me and was proud of the woman I had grown up to be. Little did I know then, that one month before our first anniversary, he would be killed in a car accident, at the age of 23.

Sometimes when I hear my children say things out of frustration to each other, I remind them to never take each other for granted. I teach them to honor and appreciate one another, and to realize that having a brother and sister is a blessing - even when their buttons are being pushed. It isn't always easy, or sometimes we might just forget, but lets remember to take the time to tell our family that we love them today. Even though it's been almost 17 years since Scott died, I wish with all my heart, that I would have done that more.

Scott Wayne Jackson
11-18-69 to 6-26-93