ON THE TOPIC OF BROTHERS DAY...
I was driving back to work after lunch this afternoon and heard a fellow on the radio say that today is National Brothers Day.
There was a time when I would have happily celebrated my relationship with my siblings but, alas, those days are gone...
I am the oldest of three brothers. We were close growing up, but life happens and things change. The middle brother got himself into some pretty serious legal trouble, but seemed on the way to turning his life around when he died of a sudden illness in early 2006. I do miss him greatly, in spite of the events that landed him behind bars for a time, but I can't honestly say that I've yet to fully forgive him for what he did. I'm trying.
As for the youngest sibling… Well, let’s just say that we became estranged following the death of my father a few years back. There were questions surrounding the manner in which Dad died - I have my suspicions regarding my sister-in-law's role in the matter, but nothing I will probably ever be able to prove - and when I raised said questions my brother told me (and I will remember this comment to my dying day) "I don't even want to see you at the f***ng funeral."
Then, in an e-mail a week or so later, he told one of my sons to "eat s***and die."
It was at that moment that I decided that he had lost the right to call himself my brother. And while it pains me greatly to admit it, the simple fact of the matter is that reconciliation is probably never going to happen and for all intents and purposes he is dead to me as well. That's not easy for me to say, but for the moment it is the truth.
Fortunately for me, I have had the great good fortune to learn along the way that family is not determined by blood alone, and because of this I have a number of “brothers in spirit” whom I love and cherish as much as if they were blood. So to you brothers, I say with great love and respect Happy Brothers Day.
In : Reminiscence
Tags: siblings
John A. Small is an award-winning newspaper journalist, columnist and broadcaster whose work has been honored by the Oklahoma Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press, the National Newspaper Association, and the Oklahoma Education Association. He and his wife Melissa were married in 1986; they have two sons, Joshua Orrin (born 1991) and William Ian (born 1996).
Mr. Small is the News Editor and columnist for the Johnston County Capital-Democrat, a weekly newspaper headquartered in Tishomingo, OK. He obtained his nickname, "Bard of the Lesser Boulevards," from a journalism colleague - the late Phil Byrum - in recognition of the success of his popular newspaper column, "Small Talk." (In addition to the many awards the column itself has received over the years, a radio version of "Small Talk" earned an award for "Best Small Market Commentary" from the Society of Professional Journalists in 1998.)
John was born in Oklahoma City in 1963; lived in the Bradley-Bourbonnais-Kankakee area of Illinois for most of the next 28 years (with brief sojourns in Texas and Athens, Greece, thrown in to break up the monotony); then returned to his native state in 1991, where he currently resides in the Tishomingo/Ravia area. He graduated from Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School in 1981, and received his bachelor's degree in journalism from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais in 1991. The years between high school and college were a period frought with numerous exploits and misadventures, some of which have become the stuff of legend; nobody was hurt along the way, however, which should count for something.
In addition to his professional career as a journalist he has published two short story collections: "Days Gone By: Legends And Tales Of Sipokni West" (2007), a collection of western stories; and "Something In The Air" (2011), a more eclectic collection. He was also a contributor to the 2005 Locus Award-nominated science fiction anthology "Myths For The Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe," edited by Win Scott Eckert. In additon he has written a stage play and a self-published cookbook; served as project editor for a book about the JFK assassination entitled "The Men On The Sixth Floor"; and has either published or posted on the Internet a number of essays, stories and poems.
He has also won writing awards from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the National Library of Poetry. He is a past president of the Johnston County Chamber of Commerce in Tishomingo; was a charter member and past president of the Johnston County Reading Council, the local literacy advocacy and "friends of the library" organization; served as Johnston County's first-ever Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator in 1994-95; served two terms as chairman of the Johnston County (OK) Democratic Party; and has taught journalism classes for local Boy Scout Merit Badge Fairs. He is a member of the New Wold Newton Meteorics Society.
