Happy Heavenly Birthday to my big brother

Jan 18, 2024, 7:55 PM

He was 16 years older than me and would have been 77 today. He died in 1998 and I have to admit I’m still a little mad at him. He drank himself to death.

My first memories of him was when he was in the Navy. I barely remember it, but I just remember being really excited when he would come home for a few days. I was too little to understand at the time but evidently every time he went on leave he would drink until he ended up either in jail or in the hospital or both. After he got out of the Navy, I used to go spend a couple of weeks in the summer with him and his wife in Georgetown. I was maybe 8-10 years old. I remember him drinking a little beer but nothing outrageous when I was there. When he moved back to Johns Island we would go fishing a lot and I would stay at their house as often as possible. Somewhere around that time he got sober and was sober for about 8 years. During this time my Dad helped him get a job at the Shipyard in Charleston and gave him an acre of land to build a house on (that offer was available to any of us who wanted it and my brother and one sister took him up on it). Things were looking pretty good until he started drinking again. He lost his job and the house and his wife left him. My other brother took the house over but my Dad had to sell most of the rest of the land he had to keep it in the family. I don’t think Daddy ever forgave him. The last time I saw him was about 2 months before he died. He had just turned 51 but looked like he was closer to 80. Couldn’t hardly get out of the bed but had his drink right next to him.

I drink in moderation and don’t pretend to be perfect by any means. Thankfully, I’ve never had a problem with being able to stop before I went too far. Maybe I learned from the mistakes of others. If you can’t control yourself when drinking, please get help to stop and stay stopped. I really thought after 8 years he was going to be ok but once he started drinking again he just couldn’t or wouldn’t stop. And I still miss him and all the time we should have had together and all the fishing we didn’t get to do. Guess that’s why I’m still a little mad at him.

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