Well, shit. My extraordinary brother just called to tell me goodbye.

Heart bypasses, stage 4 cancer, a couple of pulmonary emboli, now 80 and basically homeless in southern Louisiana. 
Absolutely my role model, since he’s 14 yrs older. 
A legendary life: degree in psychology, learned Russian, stationed in Germany, came home and became deputy sheriff, opened a pet store, sold insurance, grew bonsai, professional chess ranking, pro wedding photographer, set type in his wife’s church, taught 8th grade science, became the world’s expert in Betta fish genetics, rock hound, makes dulcimers from scratch, and married for 50+ years to a wonderful supportive woman.
I asked him if all that were true and he replied “well….when stationed in Germany…I was a spy, listening to Russian transmissions in Afghanistan and decoding them…”

Last few years, after his wife died, house destroyed by LA hurricanes, having to rely on his church for a guest home to live in. Showering in truck stops. Tends of thousands in debt. Car broke down (“now I’m not only homeless, I’m car-less”). 

Pulmonologist told him today not to bother with more cancer therapy. I think he needs a CPAP to help him sleep but if that doesn’t pan out he’s moving into hospice. 
Told me through the first tears I’ve ever heard that it was an honor to know me.
I’ll talk to him again after I call his pulmonary guy tomorrow, but sheesh.

I beg to differ.

We did send him a check to help him out a few months ago, very generous of my wife to suggest a substantial sum, but it barely touched his outstanding debt and then his car that he was sometimes sleeping in went belly up and he probably used it for that, but not sure. He's fiercely, stubbornly independent and it's not my job to "teach" him anything at this point.

Although he'll ask me medical stuff. Most recent: "the pulmonologist that saved my life before tells me that the cancer is in my lymph nodes. Can he tell that on Xray?" Yes, sorry. He likely can.

A few decades ago, "Dan, I've been reading that niacin is a blood vessel dilator, so if I take it regularly it should open the blood vessels to the brain and would that make me smarter?" Well, I suppose you could try but I doubt you'd notice the difference.

He was in college in Lake Charles, and brought me to his dorm and played Rocky Raccoon after it first came out. I giggled like crazy when the doctor came in and proceeded to lie on the table. For Christmas I could tell he got me a double album and was so excited but...Donovan's Greatest Hits.

We played football on one of those little electric vibrating tables and he insisted his team name was the Greely Street Wombats.

I sat in the back of the car one time when he and our cousins (all guys his age) let me cruise with them as they blasted the soundtrack to his (still) favorite movie: Good Bad Ugly.

Driving with him and his wife to Cameron beach he pulled his VW bug over to point out to me that the odometer now ended in 007 - the coolest guy ever.

I beg to differ.

Well, shit. My extraordinary brother just called to tell me goodbye.

Heart bypasses, stage 4 cancer, a couple of pulmonary emboli, now 80 and basically homeless in southern Louisiana. 
Absolutely my role model, since he’s 14 yrs older. 
A legendary life: degree in psychology, learned Russian, stationed in Germany, came home and became deputy sheriff, opened a pet store, sold insurance, grew bonsai, professional chess ranking, pro wedding photographer, set type in his wife’s church, taught 8th grade science, became the world’s expert in Betta fish genetics, makes dulcimers from scratch, and married for 50+ years to a wonderful supportive woman.
I asked him if all that were true and he replied “well….when stationed in Germany…I was a spy, listening to Russian transmissions in Afghanistan and decoding them…”

Last few years, after his wife died, house destroyed by LA hurricanes, having to rely on his church for a guest home to live in. Showering in truck stops. Tends of thousands in debt. Car broke down (“now I’m not only homeless, I’m car-less”). 

Pulmonologist told him today not to bother with more cancer therapy. I think he needs a CPAP to help him sleep but if that doesn’t pan out he’s moving into hospice. 
Told me through the first tears I’ve ever heard that it was an honor to know me.
I’ll talk to him again after I call his pulmonary guy tomorrow, but sheesh.

some links about my brother and Siamese Fighting Fish. He was the world’s expert. 

Well, shit. My extraordinary brother just called to tell me goodbye.

Heart bypasses, stage 4 cancer, a couple of pulmonary emboli, now 80 and basically homeless in southern Louisiana. 
Absolutely my role model, since he’s 14 yrs older. 
A legendary life: degree in psychology, learned Russian, stationed in Germany, came home and became deputy sheriff, opened a pet store, sold insurance, grew bonsai, professional chess ranking, pro wedding photographer, set type in his wife’s church, taught 8th grade science, became the world’s expert in Betta fish genetics, makes dulcimers from scratch, and married for 50+ years to a wonderful supportive woman.
I asked him if all that were true and he replied “well….when stationed in Germany…I was a spy, listening to Russian transmissions in Afghanistan and decoding them…”

Last few years, after his wife died, house destroyed by LA hurricanes, having to rely on his church for a guest home to live in. Showering in truck stops. Tends of thousands in debt. Car broke down (“now I’m not only homeless, I’m car-less”). 

Pulmonologist told him today not to bother with more cancer therapy. I think he needs a CPAP to help him sleep but if that doesn’t pan out he’s moving into hospice. 
Told me through the first tears I’ve ever heard that it was an honor to know me.
I’ll talk to him again after I call his pulmonary guy tomorrow, but sheesh.