A New Heartache

The night before Halloween, 1977, my Dad died. I was 17 years old and had been married all of 10 months. Two weeks earlier, Jerry and I had recieved a frantic call from my Mom. She said that he had collapsed in the bedroom after taking some medication that he had recieved from the doctor for migraine headaches. She had called for an ambulance but they refused to transport him for some stupid reason. We rushed to South Dallas from Irving. Jerry carried my Dad down a long flight of stairs and put him im my Mom's car. We put my two younger brothers in the back of our little pick-up truck and headed to the V.A. Hospital with him. They found a large inoperable tumor on his brain. He died two weeks later. I had a really rough childhood. Dad was an alcoholic and was extremely abusive. It took me years to forgive him for the hurt that he caused me. But, we were trying to make things right, and then he died.
Today, Jerry called me at work, he had gotten a phone call from my Mother in Shreveport, La. My brother, Roger, collasped at work . They rushed him to the Hospital. He has a tumor on his brain. That is all I know.
I am the oldest, Roger is two years younger than me, Frankie was the youngest until Elizabeth was born, she is twenty now. Growing up, Roger was definately the middle child. He was very tempermental and easily angered. He would fight anybody. But, he loved me. He never got angry with me. After Dad died. Roger and Frankie went wild. Without going into detail, I stayed away from them as much as possible. Just last year, I saw Roger again for the first time in probably 25 years. He had grown up, he is married to a really sweet Christian woman and life is so much better for him. We talked about getting together. We never have. And now, I sit here thinking about what is going on with him. I think about all those lost years and how much I love my brother. I think about the pain of my Dad dying and how that must have affected him at the ripe old age of 15. I think about how I wish we could take all those years back and start over. I love you, Roger. and I am praying for your recovery.