Big Brother

No, not the giant talking face from "1984," but my actual big brother -- the oldest of the three. We keep in touch through (extremely) sporadic phone calls, but mostly through Facebook. We exchange comments and chat sometimes. I often think Facebook is evil, but in this case it's been great.

Jim and me and our dog, Herkimer.

We're separated in age by nearly seven years, so we didn't always do kid things together, but I can remember him taking me to see "The Rescuers" at the movie theater. And he was the epitome of what a big brother should be to a baby sister. He was protective. He looked out for me. And while he sometimes teased me (and still does!), it was always good-natured teasing and he was never ever mean to me.

With him living in Michigan and me in Colorado, we don't see each other often enough, but I know he's always there for me. He's the first person I wanted to talk to after Mom died.

He's been feeling a bit under the weather lately, so I've been thinking about him a lot and hoping my happy thoughts reach him and make him feel a tiny bit -- or a whole helluva lot -- better.