On September 4, 2003 the world lost a great man. That man would be my brother, Dean.
Instead of telling you all about what happened that day, I am going to tell you some of my favorite memories of my favorite big brother.
- I don’t remember how old I was when he bought his first horse, but I remember falling in love with her immediately. He would occasionally take me riding, and I remember one Saturday or Sunday he took me riding all day long. It was the next morning that I realized why, in western movies, cowboys always walk bow legged.
- Along with the family, Dean was a huge St. Louis Cardinals fan. We never really went on vacations when I was younger, but I remember going to many Cardinals games. One game sticks out in particular. Denise and I were riding with Mom and Dad in their car, and Dean and two of his buddies were riding in Dean’s beloved truck. We had to stop so Dean could get gas (and we could use the restroom) not too far from St. Louis. The worker offered us some tickets, and I think Dean and his buddies bought them. Dad thought he would still be able to get good tickets at the gate. Well we got to the game and guess who was in standing room only…us. Mom had brought the binoculars along, so I would look through them and see Ozzie Smith (my all-time favorite player) do his famous round-off back handsprings. We saw a family leave, so we quickly took their seats. Keep in mind that when we went to this game, Dean was under the legal drinking age of 21. ALL of the beer vendors had large buttons on that said something to the effect of “Under 21? We card!” Mom was looking through the binoculars and found Dean and his buddies…buying beer. Guess Busch Stadium needed to work on the whole carding thing.
- Keeping with the Cardinals theme, in 1998 Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were in the middle of their home run race. They were trying to break the record of 61 home runs hit in a single season. It was September 8, 1998 when McGwire hit number 62 breaking Roger Maris’s record. I think every Cardinals fan can tell you where they watched it. Mom, Dad, Denise, and I were upstairs in the kitchen (don’t ask why we were sitting around the 13” TV rather than the larger one in the living room), and Dean had just gone downstairs to take a shower. He went down right as the game went to commercial with McGwire due up in the next inning. Long story short, McGwire got up to bat and hit #62. It was a great day to be a Cards fan. But where was Dean? Downstairs in the shower. We yelled, “He did it!” down the staircase and we were told to shut the door so that he could run over to his TV and watch the replay. We all still laugh so hard when we think of this moment. It could be my favorite Dean moment ever.
- Dean only got to know Trevor for the first ten months of Trevor’s life. In those short ten months, I don’t think anyone loved a child more. When we would all be around, Dean would practically scoop Trevor out of our arms. There aren’t very many photos of the two together, but this is the one I always think of. Dean trying to comfort a crying Trevor. It is too sweet.
- Dean had a habit of trying to annoy me. I know, a big brother trying to annoy his little sister…unheard of! Anyway, he sometimes got stuck driving me places and would make up little parodies to songs. The one I remember the most is Tanya Tucker’s “Two Sparrows in a Hurricane.” This song was popular when I was younger. It goes something like this: Like two sparrows in a hurricane/Trying to find their way. What Dean would sing was: Like four cardinals in a tornado/ trying to hide from you. Nice, Dean.
- Denise, my older sister, got married the summer before I was in ninth grade. It is a Dubois County tradition to stop at a bar, to get beverages of course, before going to the reception. We stopped at The Shamrock and got some drinks. I had my very first strawberry daiquiri wine cooler that afternoon. I was just sipping on it and enjoying the ride over. As we were pulling into the reception, Dean noticed I had quite a bit of my wine cooler in my mug yet. He told me I needed to drink it because Mom would get mad if she saw that I had it. So what’s a fourteen year old to do when her big brother is telling her to do something? I chugged it. All I remember from that moment was Denise saying, “Oh my God…she’s going to puke later.” For the record, I didn’t. Dean had a great time at the wedding….a little too much fun. Mom and Dad took him to our house that night and I can honestly say I have never been so happy when someone passed out in the middle of the car ride home.
Those are just some of my favorite memories of my big brother. I can speak for my whole family when I say we miss him so much every day. It’s so hard to believe it has been eight years. Some days it feels like it has been forever that we have talked to him and other days it seems like it was yesterday. I miss him calling me Motor Mouth, even though I hated when he called me that!
We miss you and love you, big brother. Keep watching over us.
