25 July, 2013

Me and My Big Bro

About 1953, I think....
Over the last few months, I have been getting re-acquainted with my older brother.  He kind of vanished, POOF!, about a million years ago, back when I was a young Mom.  It was 1978, I think, a lifetime ago.  I have missed him all of these years, wondered where he was, hoped that he was having a good life.  Did I have a sister-in-law? Was I an Auntie? Was he even still living? Mr. T. and I seriously searched for him, but with no luck.

Through the magic of the Internet, and with the good fortune to be married to a retired Federal Agent, my very own Mr. T,... who is some kind of a super-whiz at investigations, we finally located him a few months ago in New Orleans.  My brother and I have connected through Facebook and are communicating back and forth, getting to know each other again after all of these years. He's a musician living in the French Quarter.  He has sent me CD's of his compositions.  Really great stuff!  He always was a superb musician!

No, I am not an Auntie, I do not have a sister-in-law, but that's just fine with me.  I am just happy to have found my Big Brother after all of these years.  That's him, in the photo above, standing in the middle.  I am seated in his pedal airplane, sitting like a brazen hussy with my leg slung over the side ..., and with my brothers initials, J.P., painted on the side by our father.  My bro "flew" all over the neighborhood in his pedal airplane, and he let me channel my inner Amelia Earhart from time to time.  I bet that airplane would be worth about a gazillion dollars today!

Who that kid on the right is?... I have no idea. All I see in the photo is me and my big bro.

2 comments:

  1. So wonderful that you found your brother!!! Kudos to Mr. T's amazing detective skills!
    I hope you get to meet again and rekindle the love and rivalry that only siblings can have.
    And how awesome that you both are artists? Really excited for you.
    K

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  2. Thanks, Kathy. It's been weird and wonderful. Catching up after all of these years... well, it's priceless. My brother did not even know that he had a nephew, our son, Ryan.

    He and I began studying music at the same time. We began with piano lessons, taught by our Mom, and he excelled while I learned three songs by heart and went to play outdoors... He was about 12 and I was 10. We both played the same instrument in the school band, the Alto Horn. We both changed to the French Horn at the same time, a bit later. Uhhhmmmm, do you think that I just wanted to be like him? Most definitely!

    In our recent correspondence, he talks about things like "sequencing Bach", and I have no clue what he's talking about. He's freaking smart regarding all things musical, which just makes my heart happy.

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