Published: September 28, 2009 05:33 pm         

MS. TAKES: Missing brother Ed

TERRE HAUTE — Someone asked the other day why I hadn’t written about my brother, Ed, lately. The short answer is that he has been dead for 11 years. I can only write the memories of experiences we shared.

He was 14 months younger than I, the “old sister. He never let me forget that.

We used to plot to get our way when Mom and Dad forbid us a pleasure. I remember how Ed and I wanted to go to the opening game of the Yorkville Foxes basketball season. For some reason the folks vetoed the plan, but as a consolation prize, they offered a trip to Aurora the next night where they were going to see a new Abbott and Costello movie. We could go to the game or the movie - immediate or delayed gratification.

Ed REALLY wanted to see that movie and I REALLY wanted to go to that basketball game, so I called for a powwow. I suggested that we opt for the basketball game, adding that I was confident Mom and Dad wouldn’t leave us along the next night. Says something about the devious mind of the female, doesn’t it?

So we both chose the basketball game and, sure enough, we were included in the next night’s treat as well.

I’ve already written about the time I shot Ed. It was only a BB gun and it wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t wandered into the line of fire just as I pulled the trigger. He didn’t believe I hadn’t done it on purpose and chased me around and around the house until I collapsed with the giggles and he got me - nearly pulled my pigtails out by the roots.

I remember how he helped me through college. I was trying to work my way through and it was tough going, especially after Mom and Dad moved to Southeast Missouri and I had to move into the dorm. Ed was off in the South Pacific and arranged to have $25 a month of his pay sent to me.

And so, as a grateful “Old Sister” who was gainfully employed when Ed came home and entered the University of Illinois, I repaid the $25 a month with interest. Ed was married by then and it covered little luxuries not covered by the GI Bill.

Ed graduated, passed his CPA exam and moved to California. Distance precluded frequent meetings, but when Dad was terminally ill, Ed came to Indiana and the two of us drove to Memphis to visit Dad in the hospital. Sad as our mission was, we laughed all the way down and all the way back to Indiana.

I still miss him. His dog — OUR dog — died shortly after he entered the Navy. She missed him too.