 | Should I fly to Los Angeles to find my brother? |
This post is classified under "memories" for those facebook readers that don’t see categories. I wanted to write down my memory of the day I found out my brother had passed. Mom – be warned.
Caleb and I slept in what would be called "Uncle Jay’s" room together when we lived at my Grandma’s house. He slept in the queen bed and I slept on the cot right next to it. I remember that when I woke up, I used to wake Caleb up, talking to him, or checking to see if he was awake. I got in trouble once or twice for it. I don’t remember what day of the week it was, but I remember waking up, and going downstairs, thinking not to wake up Caleb. As I sat and watched TV at the table and ate breakfast, my mom went upstairs to get Caleb. Moments later, My mom was yelling, "Mom!" I saw her carry Caleb down into the living room and put him down on the couch. A large EMT lady showed up with ambulance a while later. I’m 8. I don’t remember any other siblings being home but me. I remember my dad coming to the back door and telling me to get Pap-pap. I think there was a little bit of tension with letting my dad into the house, but ultimately, he ended up to being able to come into the kitchen at least. That’s where I remember holding a 2×3 photo of Caleb and crying in the arms of my dad, saying things like, "Caleb is gone", but I can also remember not really understanding what that meant. I just felt like that is what I should be doing, as if I was just doing it because that’s what they do on TV or something.
It was Friday, January 26th, 1990. Caleb was turning 10 on February 9th. I assume we had the funeral shortly after. I remember school at Bentleyville Wesleyan was canceled for the funeral. I saw a lot of people at the funeral. I remember Uncle Kenny playing a song he wrote and leaving a casette tape in Caleb’s casket. I want to say I even put in one of his wood cars. The weird memory is that I remember Jim Henson dying around the same time, and images of all the Sesame street characters showing up at his funeral, and thinking about those same characters showing up at Caleb’s. Jim Henson didn’t die until May 16th, but I guess the memories were still fresh enough in my head to make that imprint, or it’s been so long that they just seem to overlap. I remember Jesse and Uncle Tom coming up. Honestly, I’ve had quite a few funerals, most at the same exact place, so a lot of the memories I have in my head right now, are bluring together, so I’ll stick to the ones I’m sure of…at least, as sure as my memory let’s me believe.
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