A Sentimental Connection

This is one of my favorite stories about a very special connection I have with my brother.  As I have mentioned before, my younger brother Rich passed away a few years ago. I visited him in Wisconsin a couple of times during his illness to help around the house and spend time with him, his wife Carol, and his two young boys Henry, and Charles.



Rich always enjoyed taking pictures and videos of the kids and our family gatherings that he would share during our reunions.  He also played around with photoshop...putting together this set of Henry, photoshopping himself out of the picture making it look like the two year old was dunking the ball.

The hoop was on the barn on the farm we grew up on...and, by the looks of it, the very same net. We spent lots of hours shooting balls through this hoop...which is lower than usual...but still a little high for Henry.

Rich eventually tore this barn down giving way to a sweeping view of the fields behind. It is so sad that Rich didn't get a chance to really enjoy all the improvements he made to the family farm.

During one of my visits we were talking about photo shop.  I had these two pictures of my boys from years back riding the tandem bike at one of our family reunions on the farm.  I love the pictures...but I was disappointed that a car was in the background of the second photo. Rich told me to e-mail him the picture and he would take a look at it...so that's what I did.

I didn't give the photo another thought....Rich's health rapidly grew worse and the prognosis was not good. But one late summer day I was working in the garden in my front yard in Lexington when the mail came.  I sat on my front porch and opened a small package from an unfamiliar address in Wisconsin (Rich's work) and found a framed picture of my boys on the bike...with no car in the background.  He had written me a nice note and included several extra copies of the picture. Needless to say I was overcome with emotion. My boys and I will treasure this photo...and I am so grateful to Rich.  A sentimental connection indeed!