I’m not sure I can talk about this on the blog.

When I was 17, I first got drunk (VO and diet root beer) at a new year’s eve party my older brother threw to honor the visit of his Navy buddy and his buddy’s wife. As I recall, my brother was so taken with his buddy’s wife that he asked her (and this was very bold for him, he was at least as shy as me) “do you have a sister?”

She had a twin sister.

Big Brother and Twin Sister have been married for 43 years.

This is personal stuff of the sort I do not normally talk about here at TUAK. I’m crossing a line here. But I just need to say this.

Big Brother’s wife has just come out of a hospital after a month and a nearly-fatal encounter with pneumonia. As I understand it he very nearly lost her.

He sent me an email this afternoon, saying things I won’t repeat, things I’ve spent the remainder of the day thinking about. And maybe I’m one bourbon over the line this evening but…

I love my big brother very much, he has been very kind to me over many years and he’s pretty much the only one of my siblings who had a normal, happy and productive life. You might almost say he kept me believing in humanity during a long period when I might have been forgiven for giving up all hope in the species. There were five of us. One is dead and unmourned, one is … I dunno … and two are misfit hermits. And then there’s Big Brother. He was the solid one.

What with one thing or another, I’ve never spent very much time with [Big Brother’s wife] and I doubt she has an especially fond recollection of me. But anybody who’s good for my big brother is good with me, and the news of her recovery has given me great joy. That’s all I’m trying to say.