Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Proverbs 17:17 (05/25/23)
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TITLE: My Brother | Previous Challenge Entry
By Marilyn Meiners
05/29/23 -
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This being the case, this Proverb is a great definition of my brother.
“A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need.”
My brother Glen was seven years older than myself. He adored me as his baby sister. However, by the time I was two, he was nine, and nine-year-olds don’t want to spend time playing with a “baby”. Therefore, we were never really close growing up. Yet, he was the brother “born to help in time of need.” I adored him.
There is much about our growing up years I don’t remember. Did we fight? Probably. Did we get mad at each other? Most likely. Did we tattle on each other? Definitely!! These things I tend to have forgotten. Maybe because they are negative things.
I choose to remember the positive things about my big brother.
All the good times we had together.
When my brother was fourteen (I would have been seven) he and his neighborhood friends would trade comic books every Saturday. For anyone who does not know what a comic book is, it’s a paper storybook with cartoon characters. You could buy a comic book for $.10 and my brother would spend his hard-earned money purchasing new comics, which he would trade with his friends.
He would leave home on a Saturday afternoon to meet up with his friends. Five boys pouring over comic books!
Sometimes he came home with as many as twenty new comics we could read for the week.
I could hardly wait for him to return home from this visit so I could look through his new stash of comic books. I was especially interested in Little Lulu. She was my favorite cartoon character. I loved all the adventures she and her friend Tubby would find themselves in. Even as an adult, I still like this cartoon. He didn’t always bring her home, but when he did, I was delighted.
Because we didn’t have TV and our only other form of entertainment in the evening was listening to the radio, comics were the next best thing to enlighten our imagination. I would lay on the living room floor, comic before me, and look at all the pictures. I couldn’t read well, but I did manage to figure out what was going on by looking at the pictures.
The following week he would gather all the comics he had, then meet his friends for another trade, as I patiently waited for his return.
Another precious memory was when I was sixteen. I wanted to learn how to play tennis. I was never very good at sports, but tennis seemed like something fun to learn. My twenty-three year old brother took me to the tennis courts where he patiently taught me how to play the game. I fell in love with the sport. As often as my brother could, he took his annoying “little” sister to the park so we could play a couple games of tennis. My brother was the most patient person you would every know. He never yelled. Never made me feel “stupid”. But patiently explained everything to try and help me become a better player. Truly, a “friend who loved at all times.”
A sad day for me was when he was drafted into the Army. I cried when he left for Basic Training. I was seventeen. I knew I would change during the time he was gone, as would he. I wrote him every week while he was in the service. He spent time in Japan. I loved hearing his stories about the places he visited. I still have a tea set that he brought back from Japan. The only “good” thing about his being away, he gave me permission to drive his car. Having obtained my drivers license a year before he left, I felt honored that he would entrust me with his precious car.
Glen was a true friend, a faithful brother, and loyal to the core. My life is richer because God chose to put him in it. Much of who I am today is because of the values he taught me. He passed away a year ago. He is greatly missed by all who loved him, especially me.
I know heaven must be beautiful right now because it has my brother in it!
Story is non-fiction
Scripture from NLT
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Beautifully written and it brought back many happy memories of Lulu and Tubby,. We also had others such as Archie and Veronica, The Phantom. As you said- fuel for the inagination.
Thank you.