Looking back on our childhood, I am assailed by so many wonderful memories. I treasure the memories I have with him, and I am so incredibly proud of who he has become. I have always looked up to him, I suppose I always will. Kevin was 5 years older than Keri and I, and I thought he hung the moon. He could do no wrong in my eyes. I followed him around like a puppy at times, which I'm sure irritated him to no ends.
My mom said that when Keri and I were babies, Kevin was very protective. He only let certain people hold us, and if anyone else tried, Kevin threw a fit. He loved us, and at 5 years old he took his role as big brother serious. I liked to brag about my brother when I was younger, and I think I did that a lot.
I can remember Kevin lying in the living room floor and playing "airplane" with us. He would lie on his back and place his feet in our arm pits, and grab each ankle with his hands. He would then lift us into the air and make us "fly". He would narrate what was going on in the sky around us, making us swerve and dip to avoid birds and other planes. And we always ran into severe turbulence, as he shook and bounced us. We LOVED it!
He also used us as weights quite often. He would lie in the doorway on his back and we would take turns standing on his hands, holding onto the doorway for support, as he lifted us up and down, as if we were dumbbells.
He also liked to tease us mercilessly, as all brothers do. I vividly remember him locking us out of the house, and him taking great delight in licking a chocolate ice cream cone slowly, all the while peering out the window at us, so that we could watch him enjoy his cone.
I often had trouble sleeping at night or would wake from a bad dream and find that Keri was no longer in bed with me, she always went and crawled into bed with my mom. I would go crawl into bed with Kevin. If I was scared, I could wake him up and he would always calm me down, talking to me until I fell asleep. I remember one night when I was really afraid, he stayed up reading the book E.T. to me until I fell asleep. On the school bus in the mornings, if I was very sleepy, he would let me play his little hand held football game.
Eventually, as he became a teenager, he outgrew us. We spent less time together, and as adults we live in different cities. He is now in the Army and currently deployed over seas, so I haven't been able to see him as much. But regardless of how many miles may separate us, how many months or years may go by without us seeing each other, our love for each other stays strong.
He will always be my "Bubba".......... my Hero.
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