My brother Roger

I was just informed that this is the one year anniversary of my brother's passing. I did not remember because that time is just a blur to me right now.

My heart goes out to Gayla, Justin and Clay at this moment in time. It'll get easier with time as all painful things do, but that doesn't change the fact that we all miss him.

I don't want to be gloomy tonight so I am going to think about some of my favorite Roger memories.

First thing I thought of was a little incident at Garner State Park.
Our family was camping out at Garner with our relatives, the Wheelocks. Roger, our oldest brother, David, and myself rented a paddle boat.
Keep in mind that David was 4 years older than I was. Roger grew early and was huge even as a youngster. I, on the other hand, was a little runt.
Garner State Park is beautiful and the area where you get to paddle your boat was usually peaceful. Not on this day, as we were soon attacked by other boaters. A group of boys from Houston, not unusual for representatives from that lovely city, started ramming our boat to start trouble with us. There were a lot more of them than there were of us and we kind of wanted to be left alone.
Roger never was one to hold anything back and soon yelled at them. One of them then left his boat and jumped on ours. Roger promptly threw him in the water.
I was extremely proud of him for that. Like I said, I was a runt, and way smaller than any of the other boys who were themselves actually older than David.
One thing led to another and soon David and the guy that Roger tossed were soon on the shore acting like they were fighting. Luckily, neither could fight and all of this episode was done after an adult broke them up.
We saw no more from those rascals the rest of our time there.

Another memory that comes to mind was our last golf game together. It was actually our first and last golf game.
Roger, Justin, Clay and myself all loaded up and headed to Lockhart State Park for a challenging round of golf. I was a brand new player and boy was this day comical.
Justin, actually being good at golf, smoked the rest of us. Roger, Clay and I finished in a 3 way tie for last.
It was hotter than fire, but we had a blast. Lots of laughs. Maybe a few four letter words thrown in for sure, but I'm not one to let one of those slip. :)

Mo Ranch was a hoot, that is up until the time we all got salmonella. Mo Ranch is a camp located outside of Hunt, Texas in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. We were there to scout out a location for a possible 50th wedding anniversary for our parents.
The Guadalupe River flows right through Mo Ranch and it is crystal clear and pretty cold there because the camp is pretty close to it's headwaters.
There is a slide that goes out into the river and you sit on a little board that floats out a bit into the river before you eventually sink. The faster you are, generally the further you go out into the water before you sink.
Roger, being somewhat heavy, was going faster and getting further out into the river than anyone else.
He had more fun than any of the 10 year olds riding the slides and it was so much fun watching him that day
Salmonella gave that trip a black eye, but we really had a great time before we all got sick.

Bowling? Once, Roger's family less Justin, and part of my family met in Comfort, Texas. We all went to an old school bowling alley where people still set the pins.
Needless to say, we had a great time.
Later that same trip, the boys which included Roger, Clay, Tyler and myself went up to Enchanted Rock. Clay and Tyler ran all the way to the top. We poor older fellas walked up huffing and puffing the entire way.
Great times.

A lot of my favorite memories of Roger too place during our adult years.
Sharing a room with him for 15 or 16 years had it's share of memories. Some of them too embarrasing to write.
I have already thought of several more memories but this thing could go on for pages. I think I might make it a regular feature on my blog.


I owe my brother many things and writing about him is the least I can do. But, the one thing I am most grateful for is marrying Gayla.
Gayla is good people and one of my favorites on the planet. Roger's union with Gayla brought about a couple of my other favorites, Justin and Clay.
I cannot be thankful enough for those boys. They are the salt of the earth.

Here's hoping that Gayla, Justin, Clay and the rest know that we love them and especially on this day.