Can I Get A Dozen Doughnuts For My Brother, Please?

When I was 3 and my brother was a couple of months old I decided he should try doughnuts.  I took my purse which my mom says had about $.75 in it and off I went to the bakery.  Alone.  Without telling my mom, I just walked out the front door.  Julianne’s Bakery was about a 5 block walk.  I know this because recently I went back and checked because I parent crazy children and I can’t imagine any of them walking 5 blocks at three; which probably says something about how crazy I was.  My brother was a crier.  He cried around the clock unless he was lying on my mom’s chest while she lay on her back.  She did real estate closings and she did them lying on her back with Erin on her chest for months.  It made it pretty easy for me to come and go on my own, apparently. 

I walked to the bakery and I ordered him his first dozen doughnuts and paid.  My mom and I spent a lot of time there, all of the ladies at the bakery knew me and knew my mom, they sold me a dozen doughnuts for all of the money I had on me, which even in 1974 was quite a good deal.  They also called my mom to come and get me.  She wasn’t as excited about Erin trying doughnuts as I had been.

The point is that for 39 years this person has been my concern, my responsibility in one way or another; some real, some imagined.  For 20 of those years he has been truly, one of my very best friends.  We grew up with a fairly typical sibling relationship; we beat one another senseless and fought a lot. When Erin was 18 I held his head in my lap while he cried when he had his first real broken heart and something changed; he became my friend.  He is loyal, he is kind, he loves me and loves my children and would do anything for us.  Today he is turning 39.  I’m so proud of him and the man that he is.  I’m grateful that someone shares my Cheli-centric view of the world, that there is someone who has the same heart breaks and triumphs of our shared childhood.  I am grateful that I can say a certain word or tell a certain story and someone else gets it.  I am lucky that he has my back at all times and I am happy to have his.  Happy birthday, Erin, I’d walk 5 blocks to buy you a dozen doughnuts anytime.