Memories. Ahhh Yes, Memories of My Life

He Who Inspires Me

PROMPT July 5th

Tell us about someone you find inspirational.


         He's not on this Earth with us anymore, but my youngest brother Terry. Why him?

         At 16 years old, he got his girlfriend pregnant. They ended up getting married, which I missed because I was at sea. My high school sweetheart sang at their wedding, and they looked quite the pair. So here they were, two 16 year olds, learning to be parents. Not content with one, they had a second at 18 years of age. But they persevered at making their house a home, and raising a family. He had no 'valued' skills from school, and worked at a local furniture store. She (Ruth) was a homemaker until the two girls could be taken care of by someone during the day, then she too got a job. They raised their two girls, these two teens became pretty good parents. Their girls grew up, one owns a pretty successful accounting firm, the other took after her mother.

         As some of you know, my brother became very ill in 2017, and was diagnosed with Stage IV Bladder Cancer in February. Ruth had stopped working long ago after being involved in a car accident that left her slightly disabled, and she took care of Terry. I went to see him in April, and he had aged horribly. He was almost 6 years younger than me, but he looked 20 years older.

Terry & I, 2009 at our Brother's Memorial Service


Terry & Marie (youngest daughter, the day before he died, October 16, 2017)

         You can see the difference in his looks, and it's only an 8 year span! That second photo is one of my favorites too.

         So why does he inspire me? His work ethic, his willingness to start a family at 16, see it through, and remain with his Junior High School love (they met at 14) all those years. A lot of men would have walked away or made a go of it, only to walk away sometime later. And he kept his sense of humor too. When I visited them in June for the second time that year, we were talking. He told me things were okay because they had holy water in the house. Silly me asked how/where he got holy water. He said they boiled the hell out of it. I couldn't believe I fell for that old joke!

         Him and I are a lot alike too. A love of all things to do with the idea of alien life forms/ancient aliens, visitors from other worlds, same idea on buying local, supporting local, even liking the same kind of T-shirts! This, despite me not being around much at all from 1972 to 2017! I'd visited of course, but never often, and never very long. So there, you've met my inspiration.





Jim Dorrell