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Dalton
Roberts |
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Can I do you a favor? If you love your brothers and sisters, tell them how you feel today. It can become too late in just a moment of time. My brother, Blaine, has been in Erlanger’s ICU for a week, He took a terrible tumble down a flight of stairs and had to have brain surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain. He is younger by four years but he has always felt like my older brother. He has been more settled, sensible and mature. I’ve had several divorces but he has been married to the same woman since Columbus discovered America. I smoked cigarettes for 40 years and he has never smoked at all. In my 20s and 30s I drank enough George Dickel to keep the distillery on overtime. I’ve never seen Blaine drink more than a glass of wine and a couple of beers. One day at lunch my sister, June, asked, “Can you think of anything bad Blaine has ever done?” I thought hard for a minute and finally answered, “No, but let me think some more and I’ll tell you the next time we have lunch.” I thought for a week. I mean, I thought hard. I am unable to think of a single thing he has done wrong in his life. That’s not some kind of brother fluff or embellishment. It is a simple statement of fact. Blaine has been the most perfect human being I have ever known. He would never say anything like that and I had to catch him flat on his back to dare to say it. Part of his perfection is an inordinate level of humility. His former boss once told his wife, “Blaine will be extremely busy now that he is retiring. You do know he is a world-renowned engineer, don’t you?” Jackie said, “No, he never talks about things like that with us.” While he has been in ICU, calls and cards have streamed in from all over the world. We need no more proof of how his professional peers feel about him. He is not only respected, he is deeply loved. When I went to see him with his face swollen and both eyes black as coal dust and watched him struggle to make the simplest sentences, I felt like an elephant had sat down on my chest. I didn’t think I could go back but I knew if I were in ICU he would come no matter my condition. It’s not that I love him less. He’s just a stronger man. The doctors say an injury like he experienced can take a long time to completely heal so we are clinging to each new sign of recovered memory and improved mental clarity. Our continuous prayer is that he will not have permanent damage and can return to his consulting work. When I was in public office and had my picture in the paper and on TV almost every day, he and June were often referred to as “Dalton’s brother” or “Dalton’s sister.” They would kid me and say they were sick of it. Since I left politics and Blaine’s star has ascended, the engineering community refers to me as “Blaine’s brother.” He sometimes sends one of my columns to them and I will see copies of their correspondence saying, “This was written by Blaine’s brother.” I’ve had a few honors but none greater. I feel about Blaine like the words of one of my songs: “I’ve been to the big city three times, I’ve been to the county fair, heard an all-day singing with dinner on the grounds, heard the governor speak on the square, seen a bull-goat roping and a windmill greasing and a watermelon cutting or two, I’ve seen about everything there is to see but I ain’t seen nothing like you.” When you do your next talking to our Maker, would you mention his name?
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