Moments

There are some moments in life that just sneak up on you and do something so unexpected. There is one moment that happened tonight. My big brother Tom took me and his wife & daughter out for a nice dinner in a quaint little town near their home.  Over appetizers and small talk of differing childhood memories, he tells me something I never knew. Something I will always treasure. You should probably know a few things first. We are a family of 6 children, he the youngest of the boys and I'm the baby of all of us. He is also the only brother I have left. The other two have passed away too young. Anyway, when I was 10, our sister Sue was 12 and Tom was 15, we lived in the country for awhile with our mom. Our dad was busy doing "I'm not sure what".  At that age in that generation the parents didn't make their private matters known to the younger children. They had to be 40 something :) Mom soon helped us get involved with horses and all of the fun things that came with it. Tonight Tom asked me if I knew how I got "Taffy", my first horse, and how Sue got "Smokey". I had never really thought about it so I told him that I assumed Mom bought them. I knew the second I said it that he had something to do with it. Tom said "I bought "Taffy" for you with my paper route money, and "Smokey" for Sue. Well, when your brother has kept that to himself till we are orphaned & in our 50's, I could hardly keep my composure. I really tried but the tears came anyway.  Tom is a very private person and you never really know where you stand with him.  But tonight I knew how much he has always loved me.

Thank you Tom.  I love you.

xox