I remember when my mom brought him home from the hospital. I don’t remember realizing she was having a baby or that we were getting a new sibling. I was only five. My older brother was ten. The twins were two. Robert turned to Robbie turned to Bob and we all loved him, fought with him, cracked up laughing with him, and cried for him when he left us at the age of 28 – killed in a horrific accident.
Yesterday was his 50th birthday and I wonder how he would look now. Those steel gray eyes. That boisterous laugh. That propensity for teasing. His love for Christ. And most of all how he would have dealt with raising a beautiful daughter who wasn’t born yet when he left us. How he would have lived with a wife who developed early onset Alzheimer’s. How he would have been Uncle Bobby to my children still, not a wisp of their early childhood memories.
We would have thrown him a party he hated. We would have taken photos – he hated that too. We would have had hugs and funny stories and laughed til we cried again.
But for his birthday this year he has been reunited with our mom. He’s been hanging out with our dad and grandparents. He didn’t suffer when he died. He didn’t have to suffer with us the past five months since our mom went to join him. I bet they were sure glad to see each other. And knowing they are together in the presence of Jesus is the best birthday present.
Happy 50th birthday little brother.
©Belindabotzong2019