My brother just died of brain cancer.

[calimary]

58. Damn. I'm so sorry to hear this. And the timing is so bad, too.

Then again, when is timing ever any good in cases like this?

Talk about him as YOU knew him. Brother-to-brother sounds awfully good to me, and I know it would be comforting to your listeners. They'll appreciate hearing about him from your unique perspective - it'll give them a larger and more intimate and loving picture of the man that they'd never experience from their own involvement with him, regardless how close they might indeed have been to him. Just be YOU. Come from your heart and the past that the two of you shared, back before the pain and the suffering, the loss, the dread, and the anguish. And remember this, which helped me when I had to stand up and speak at my mom's funeral Mass: NO ONE will fail to understand, and sympathize, if you get emotional. Don't even worry about that for a second. You'll have everyone's support.