My Brother's Keeper

I definitely was not my brother's keeper, but I like the title - and, in a lot of ways we were each other's keepers, especially in our younger years.   Our Dad died when Gene was six-years-old, and a couple of months before my third birthday.  I have no real memories of Dad, but Gene was really close to him and his death had a larger impact on his life.  

I was sick with asthma and rheumatic fever in my younger childhood, so I was not able to play physically in a normal way.  Gene was always athletic and active, but he managed to find time to create indoor games with me that made me feel involved in sports.  He created a baseball and football dartboard game for us and built homemade skateboards that we could sit on and coast down our driveway.  (This was before skateboards were a publicly known item.) When I was finally able to play Little League baseball, around age 11, Gene spent a lot of time coaching me in our backyard. 

When Gene began his interest in playing the guitar, I was able to return the favor in a small way.  He frequently woke me in the middle of the night to ask about chord progressions, and even how to create certain chords.  I'm sure in his earlier musical years he had some strange guitar fingerings, since he learned some of it from his piano playing brother.  

Although he surpassed me in many ways with his music, he still involved me in his life in later years as he would invite me to come down to Tennessee to do some music at some of his churches, and even do some keyboard tracks on some of his recordings in his studio.  

My brother, Gene, died this past November (2021).  I was glad that I was able to visit with him a few days in January 2020.  That was the last in-person visit I had with him.  While I was there, I took him to the grocery store a couple of times and he always bought Gorton's Fish Fillets for his daily fish sandwich.  I'm going to eat one today in his memory.  

Today, some of his friends and family members are gathering in person, and others of us will gather online to honor the memory of Gene.  Whenever possible, I'll add memories and pictures to this blog.  If you happen to see this and knew Gene, please leave your comments.  Thank you. 

I love my brother, and miss him dearly.