To my nephew just now.

Heard it in Mum's voice when I called her at 8:30. I call her every morning at the same time. There are certain days when I kinda know it's gonna be a bad day. Well, July 1 is one. I went over to clean sinks and mop and such as I couldn't take her out to the stores for a walk as usual and I knew she could "use some company" today. After I was done... well, tears flowed.

But, it's 8 years now and I have dealt with it, to some extent, through writing short stories and visiting his grave every year with a bottle and "having a chat". I have a fair few short stories. I share none. Sometimes, I will share a snippet, as I did today in a forum that has given me some joy and solace since I stopped hunting.

I thought of sharing this with you but I was hesitant. Then I thought... WTF? Share it with some friends and 16k+ strangers? Why not share it with Ian?

So, I screenshot my posts. They are attached. Unless I gotta send them one at a time... ???... I am still technologically declined. Nope looks like I got the whole post.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Here is the text... no pics attached to this post...

I call this pic "Time for a Smoke". On this day in 2008, Bro left. He was an RCAF Airman. He was unconscious for days before he left. Near a week after they took all the tubes out. He wasn't supposed to last as long as he did. Mum said, "A true Airman... he waited for Canada Day to die."

The pic. Long story that I won't try to look up. Here's a short version. To the right of the pic hangs a nice buck on the back of my truck camper. We celebrated with beers. After several beers, tired from the 'deer work', Bro fell asleep. Not long before he fell asleep, having had a couple of beers, he was in that mood he used to get in. He had his semi 308 beside his chair and he, without me knowing, put a mag in, set the butt on the road with the gun straight up and waited until I was standing about six feet away with my back to him. WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM!!!!!! I near pissed myself. I took to swearing at him (and continued while I was pissing) and he just kept laughing.

And, then... he fell asleep. I took a smoke out of his package of smokes. I lit it and puffed on it. Then I put it between his fingers. I took a picture... and then I waited. You do the math.
I did not laugh. That would have escalated things. >;-)

Miss ya, Bro. RIP.