More like Bruce.

I don't know if I'm supposed to grieve the death of my brother. Bruce died the other day. On his birthday. An accidental death. But Bruce had been in ill health for years. A number of maladies. Bruce never really took care of himself. He was a drinker. And he was way overweight much of his life. And he had an unhappy, unsuccessful marriage. And never got married again. Bruce was a philosopher. At least, he majored in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin. Maybe Bruce didn't know what he was. Or maybe it was that I didn't know Bruce. We hadn't seen each other for decades. Albeit, we occasionally talked to each other on the phone, or exchanged infrequent emails. He was in California. I'm in Minnesota. I was going to call him on his birthday. The day he died. Didn't quite make it in time. Bruce was 354 days younger than me. Yes, a relative closeness in age. But we always moreorless went our separate ways. He had his set of friends. I had mine. I think our personalities were quite different. We spent our youth in pretty much the same environment. But I think we let it affect us in different ways. Seems to me that Bruce was more like our father. I'm more like my mother. Anyway, I have a sister, too. About 4 years younger than me. Babs is more like father. More like Bruce. -Jim Broede