A Series of Fortunate Events
Dear Jonathan,
I stand up here not only as your baby sister, but let’s face it, between you and me, I’ve always been your favorite sister. Don’t get me wrong, I know that Sarah loves you just as much as I do, but she is far less willing to put up with any of your crazy antics. You know that you can convince me to do anything. I look up to you. You are my big brother and everything that you say is truth.
Just like that time when I was 8 years old and you wanted the last of the cocoa puffs, so you told me that when I add milk, little white worms will begin crawling out of the cereal. Of course, I surrendered the cereal to you and to this day, I still can’t find myself to eat cocoa puffs.
I forgive you for that time when I was 7 years old and you took a hammer to my brand new flik flak watch because the commercial said it was shatterproof. Of course, it shattered. Apparently, I didn’t read the fine print that said “not Jonathan proof”.
Remember when I was 8 and you convinced me that we should experiment by taking dead grass from the hill across the street from where we lived, roll it up in cigarette paper and smoke it? You told me to go first and when I couldn’t stop coughing after the first puff, you graciously said we wouldn’t do that anymore.
I remember how much you loved to play hockey and needed to practice your shots in the driveway. After Mommy and Daddy got tired of you dinging up their brand new aluminum garage door, you built yourself net and all you needed was a goalie. Of course, I was so flattered when you convinced me that I would make the perfect goalie! So you dressed me up head to toe in protective gear that included a hockey helmet and shoulder pads and a pillow duck-taped to my stomach and I remember standing there for what felt like hours, flinching every time that hockey puck came flying towards me.
Even in your last few weeks here, you still knew that I would do anything for you. For everyone in the house, night duty usually took just long enough to give you the small dose of morphine so that you could fall asleep and sleep comfortably through the night. For me, you always found a way to extend night duty to a 5 hour session, which would include a 2 hour foot massage, a sugar free popsicle, an episode of The Office, a cup of vegetable broth, another sugar free popsicle, and a full length feature film. Even though I struggled so hard to stay awake until the early morning hours, I will forever cherish those last memories I have with you. Even that time a couple weeks ago when it was 2:30 in the morning and you had a sudden craving for ice breaker sour candies and had me make a CVS run in my pajamas.
I’ll take with me many more memories living with you for the past year, including pot-roast Sundays when you would make your famous pot roast and you, me, and Dawn would eat dinner and watch the Sunday night football game together. We always enjoyed watching football together and I remember when you came home from the hospital only 4 weeks ago, the first order of business was for me to help you submit your fantasy football line-up. And don’t you worry, I’ll still take care of that for you. I want you to know that I will always have you in my heart and you will go everywhere with me. And to keep your memory alive, the Colts will always be my second favorite Team. I love you Jonathan, and I’ll see you later.
I stand up here not only as your baby sister, but let’s face it, between you and me, I’ve always been your favorite sister. Don’t get me wrong, I know that Sarah loves you just as much as I do, but she is far less willing to put up with any of your crazy antics. You know that you can convince me to do anything. I look up to you. You are my big brother and everything that you say is truth.
Just like that time when I was 8 years old and you wanted the last of the cocoa puffs, so you told me that when I add milk, little white worms will begin crawling out of the cereal. Of course, I surrendered the cereal to you and to this day, I still can’t find myself to eat cocoa puffs.
I forgive you for that time when I was 7 years old and you took a hammer to my brand new flik flak watch because the commercial said it was shatterproof. Of course, it shattered. Apparently, I didn’t read the fine print that said “not Jonathan proof”.
Remember when I was 8 and you convinced me that we should experiment by taking dead grass from the hill across the street from where we lived, roll it up in cigarette paper and smoke it? You told me to go first and when I couldn’t stop coughing after the first puff, you graciously said we wouldn’t do that anymore.
I remember how much you loved to play hockey and needed to practice your shots in the driveway. After Mommy and Daddy got tired of you dinging up their brand new aluminum garage door, you built yourself net and all you needed was a goalie. Of course, I was so flattered when you convinced me that I would make the perfect goalie! So you dressed me up head to toe in protective gear that included a hockey helmet and shoulder pads and a pillow duck-taped to my stomach and I remember standing there for what felt like hours, flinching every time that hockey puck came flying towards me.
Even in your last few weeks here, you still knew that I would do anything for you. For everyone in the house, night duty usually took just long enough to give you the small dose of morphine so that you could fall asleep and sleep comfortably through the night. For me, you always found a way to extend night duty to a 5 hour session, which would include a 2 hour foot massage, a sugar free popsicle, an episode of The Office, a cup of vegetable broth, another sugar free popsicle, and a full length feature film. Even though I struggled so hard to stay awake until the early morning hours, I will forever cherish those last memories I have with you. Even that time a couple weeks ago when it was 2:30 in the morning and you had a sudden craving for ice breaker sour candies and had me make a CVS run in my pajamas.
I’ll take with me many more memories living with you for the past year, including pot-roast Sundays when you would make your famous pot roast and you, me, and Dawn would eat dinner and watch the Sunday night football game together. We always enjoyed watching football together and I remember when you came home from the hospital only 4 weeks ago, the first order of business was for me to help you submit your fantasy football line-up. And don’t you worry, I’ll still take care of that for you. I want you to know that I will always have you in my heart and you will go everywhere with me. And to keep your memory alive, the Colts will always be my second favorite Team. I love you Jonathan, and I’ll see you later.