My Brother Larry

One year ago today...

I miss him...not because I lived very close to him these last years...in fact, we lived miles apart, my life having taken on the usual twists and turns, moves and changes...his having remained steady, constant in the face of so much change-just the way he liked life. No, I miss him because he profoundly impacted my growing-up years, who I became and who I am today.

Larry loved photographs, phonographs, 8-track tapes, and the boxes that housed them.

He was a collector, a keeper, a horder of all things he could find. Nothing was not good enough to save...and he did so admirably.

He loved processed cheese, regular cheese, and diet soda... usually all three before he went to bed at night...that is, before he went to live at the Range Center. After that, he was placed on a diet...for his weight and his diabetes...and he did so well.

Larry loved Christmas...he'd light up long before anyone's trees or decorations were up, and his worn-out catalogues from JCPenneys or Montgomery Wards and Sears were the usual fare come fall at the DeLong household.

Dad wouldn't put up the tree too early; Larry simply couldn't handle the excitement. But then, just days before the big opening, he'd be there supervising the set up of the tree and wanting to help bring out all the gifts to sort them under the branches.

He'd sit in his worn-down, much-loved recliner next to the tree..half on the edge of his seat...counting and recounting the gifts. His teachers didn't believe he could read...but we knew otherwise...he knew which gifts were his...and he would stack them just a bit closer to his chair each day as we approached Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Eve, when Grandma still lived on 39th Street, Dad would pack us into the old '57 Chevy and take us over to her little house, where Larry and I would sit on the fold out couch/bed, waiting for Grandma to finish wrapping each gift. It was there that I learned to love ribbon candy, and where Larry would wait and wait for all the gifts to come out, signaling to Grandma which ones he thought were his.

Larry wasn't able to speak like the rest of us, but he knew how to communicate...in ways that always amazed me, often frightened me (he did have a temper!) and in ways that reminded me of how limited I was in my own communication...especially in communicating love...something Larry was able to do with a simple smile ... like in the photo above.

Somehow, though all my theological training gives me little information about persons like Larry, I do believe that the Lord has grace and mercy in special measure for persons like my brother.

I know, because God graced me with the special privilege of having many years growing up in a little house in a shared bedroom with Larry, my brother.

In the past 12 months, two very significant men in my life have died...first, Larry - just one year ago today. And second, and somehow I believe in response to or relation to the first, my Dad - just 6 weeks ago.

My life has been so touched by these two people...and is now so empty without them.