Little Brother

My little brother is almost ten years younger than I am. When he was born, the neighbors got to look at him before my sister and I did. I was not happy about that. It wasn't right.

As a side note, my mother showed me how to do wash just in case it needed to be done while she was in the hospital having the baby. When I got up the next morning and found out she had gone to the hospital, I immediately set about doing the laundry. I washed something red with the other clothes, and everything became a lovely shade of pink. Apparently there were other considerations than just putting the clothes in the washer. I now like to think of those pink underwear as a lovely memory of the day.

I didn't really have to take care of my baby brother too much when he was a baby. My mom wasn't working then, and she did all the caretaking. He got very sick when he was just a few months old, and I remember my mom crying as she rocked him. I now know he could have died then, but I didn't know anything about that then. My mother said she felt the presence of an angel sometime during that sickness. If you knew my mother, you would know she wasn't given to flights of fancy. She was a wonderful Christian who led many people to the Lord and who spent many hours studying God's Word and teaching it. So when she said there may have been an angel, all I can do is believe it.

My sister and I used to help my brother say his prayers at night when he was really little. We had him say, "God bless my family." The way he actually said it was, "God bless my flammy." We loved for him to say that. When he got a little bit older and said the words correctly, then we would make him say, "God bless my flammy." We just didn't want to let it go.

In my family the chief form of discipline was spanking. I was the QUEEN of spankings. I got many, many. Well, my sister and I used to discuss that we felt like the brother deserved to get spankings much more often than he did. However, when he received a spanking, my sister and I sometimes would cry in secret because our poor little brother was getting spanked. I guess we were of two or three minds about that.

In connection with his getting spanked, he could take many swats before he would cry. My sister and I finally had to tell him how it worked. We told him if he would cry after two or three swats, he wouldn't have to get as many. I think he changed his ways after that.

There's much more to say about this good brother. I won't say it now, but I may eventually. He is about 6'1" now and is a fireman and a godly Christian. Either the spankings or the prayers worked!