Siblings

What happens when brothers and sisters get together long after their parents have died and their family home has been sold? Do they revert to their childhood roles with one another? Here’s one case.

When my brother and sister-in-law were visiting my wife and me a few weeks ago, the four of us went out to dinner. On our way home, we stopped to buy some bananas for the next day’s breakfast. When three of us left the store, we noticed that my brother was missing. Where had he gone? He wasn’t in the store nor could we see him on the street. He didn’t have his cell phone with him so we couldn’t call him. I was upset, more so than his wife, in fact. While we pondered what to do, my brother emerged from the open back of a fire truck that was parked near the store. A young fireman had invited him to inspect the truck’s interior and to learn about its equipment, an invitation that my brother, long interested in fire engines, accepted with pleasure.

Why was I so upset by his temporary disappearance? I’m four years older than he is and six years older than my sister. By the time I was nine, our mother began to suffer from fatigue. She would sometimes ask me take my siblings to the park, about a half mile away. I dutifully wheeled them there in a double stroller, helped them on the swings and seesaws, watched them while they ran around, and then wheeled them home, thus giving our mother a few hours of peace and quiet. I was responsible for them then and I guess I took my responsibility pretty seriously. So seriously, in fact, that it seems that I’ve never gotten over it. Seventy years later, when my brother and I are together, I still feel responsible for him. Never mind that my brother is perfectly able to take care of himself and that my children now do their best to supervise me.