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Edited on Mon Apr-06-09 10:48 AM by DemocratSinceBirth
Bear with me because it takes awhile to set up. My mom passed away on September 28th of last year. I had taken care of her the last twelve years of my life from the time she was seventy eight years old. We had some close friends, Nate and Mary, who are African American. When my mom passed away Mary said was my mom was like a grandmother to her. I said that makes you my mom. They always introduce me as their "white" son and whenever I meet a member of their family I am introduced as a brother, cousin, uncle, et cetera. They are really close to me; so close that my girlfriend and I traveled from Orlando to Fayetteville to spend Christmas with them and their family. Nate was career Army and has Bronze Stars from Korea and Viet Nam. He also has a commendation from the Southern Poverty Law Center for his contributions to the "Teaching Tolerance" program. We do lot of things together. We go to basketball games and we went to a predominately African American church which was one of the most spiritually moving moments of my life. I told my buddy ,Nate, I could really feel the presence of the Holy Ghost.
Nate had a brother, George, who was sick in the hospital in Jacksonville and we went to see him twice; the first time I drove and the second time Nate drove. The other day I had to clean out my mom's closet because my girlfriend was moving to my home from Los Angeles. We had twenty bags of clothes. I asked Nate if he wanted to go with me to the Salvation Army Store to drop them off. I had a lot on my mid which I wanted to share with Nate because I value his wisdom and experience. When we were in the car I told him I had "funny stuff" and "serious stuff" to share with him and asked him which he wanted to hear first. Nate said the "funny stuff". We made a couple of stops and must have spent about an hour and half together. When we were almost done after hearing me go on and on about what I thought was "funny" he said "I have some bad news" I said "what". He said my "brother died". I just started crying. We had just seen him Saturday. George has a son and a daughter. His son is sixteen years old .We met him on the way back. Nate introduced me as his cousin and told him to listen to me as I am "wise".
I guess I will be making the trip up to Jacksonville again. I was just about to ask Nate when we were going to visit his brother again.
Just sad...
P.S. I should add George's wife died a couple of months ago. That means all Little George just has a step mom to look after him. Nate just called me. We're driving up to Jacksonville from Orlando to help get the arrangements started.
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