Goodbye "Little Bro"--You and Your Watermelon are Forever in Our Hearts

IT MAKES SENSE TO ME

The picture above was taken at my daughter's wedding and it was a happy day. Facing the picture, the young fellow on the left is my "baby" brother, Johnny. The one to his left in the back is my brother, Bobby. I am to the far right, my sister, Carolyn, is in front of me and my brother, Danny, is to her left in front of Bobby. The young man with the silly grin on his face is my son, Larry Jr. who was really having a "good" time. The little guy is my grandson, Darren. He is now in college.

I posted this photo because there are very few photos of the five of us together. There has been a lot of death in our family over the years. Bobby died in 2007 from cardiac failure. He was 53. Carolyn's husband, Bob, died back in 1993. He had a brain-stem tumor. He was almost 53. My wife, Loretta, died (melanoma) in 2003. She was 58. Danny's wife, Annie, died (emphysema) last April. She was 64. Our mom died at 40 from leukemia. Our dad died at 53 from Pancreatitis. We had a stillborn daughter, Theresa. Her life span ended while entering the world. And then, the other day, our brother Johnny, (I also called him "Little Bro" and he called me, "Big Bro") died. He was 56. Unlike the others, Johnny's death was self-inflicted. This I do not understand. Therefore, I have turned it over to God....totally.

It is a beautiful thing when you do have an abiding faith in the God above to help you climb over the rubble of life. And yes, this left a serious pile of rubble for sure. I will not analyze or try to figure out "what happened". I just ask anyone who might read this to say a prayer for "Little Bro" and for his wife and family. We have the peace of knowing that Johnny is now with his most loving and merciful Father and is in "GOOD HANDS".

Also, maybe say a prayer for me. I am unable to attend Johnny's funeral today and I am quite "in the dumps" about it. I should be with the rest of my family. However, being a caregiver to an Alzheimer patient (my wife) can sometimes leave you unable to act on unexpected life situations. I will go to 8 a.m. Mass in my parish and I will be OK.

Anyway, today we say GOOD-BYE to the "baby" of the family. It is a hard day for all of us but God and His Son and our Brother, Jesus, do have our backs. WE will feel their comfort and the loving hand of Mother Mary will guide us along. Love you "Little Bro".

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PART II

Our dear cousin, Vicki Nelson, had a wonderful memory of Johnny back when he was seven years old. She wrote an essay about it and it came straight from her heart and I am posting it now--in honor of "Little Bro". Thank you, Vicki.

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The Watermelon Story

by Vicki Nelson

To look at him that summer morning, no one would ever guess he had a care in the world. And in that moment, I suppose he didn't. Still, it must have been confusing for him. Here he was - a seven-year old kid from the Bronx suddenly transplanted with his eleven year old brother for the summer in his uncle's new house in the New Jersey suburbs. The brothers were recently orphaned after a short span of time where first their mom, then their grandma, and finally their dad died. The two boys had three older siblings, one of whom was a bonafied teenager and the oldest two were barely old enough to be considered real grown-ups. How it was going to work out, no one really knew. Uncle Larry had four kids of his own, plus a wife and mother-in-law to support. He had just bought a larger house to accommodate his growing family and they barely had two nickels to rub together in those days. He was a one man show with his nuts and bolts business that was touch and go lately. Still he did what he could for his sister's kids. He was their beloved Uncle Larry even if he did live in Jersey.

And in Jersey, everyone had lawns. Having a lawn and then complaining about cutting the grass was the main reason people moved across the Hudson River. Uncle Larry had not put in the backyard lawn yet. Hundreds of weeds needed pulling and rocks needed removing. The earth was soft, however, and Aunt Gloria promised to pay each working kid a penny a weed - easy work for a bountiful harvest that awaited. Brother Bobby got the bright idea to remove some of the leaves from each weed thereby maximizing his profit for each weed. Aunt Gloria, originally a city kid from New York herself, quickly wised up to the shenanigans and so we all picked weeds for free from then on. I don't really remember how the next part came about - maybe we just finally had enough land to do it. Or maybe it was just that we were already outside so much anyway, digging in the dirt and pulling weeds. Somebody got the idea to plant our own vegetable garden so we picked a nice flat spot way out back and sowed seeds from little packets. We planted the usual - tomatoes and zucchini and bell pepper plants and - Johnny's special request - watermelons.

New Jersey is the Garden State and our plants just grew like crazy. The watermelon plants grew hundreds of leaves that spread out all over the place. Johnny would jump out of bed first thing every morning and run to the garden patch in hopes of spotting his first watermelon. The tomatoes eventually turned red, the bell peppers and zucchini grew in abundance too. Meanwhile, Aunt Gloria was beginning to suspect that the watermelons were not going to produce much more than green leaves. So she planned a little surprise for Johnny.

The next morning, like clockwork, Johnny ran out the back door to check on his watermelon patch. In a few minutes we could all hear his ‘hootin' and ‘hollerin.' "I got one! I got one! I got my very own watermelon! Everybody - come look!!!"

We could see him from the window. He jumped up and down, hopping from one foot to the other with that blond curly hair bouncing and his blue eyes shining.

We all went running out the back door to meet him as he continued jumping with that toothless seven year old grin, as he proudly displayed the roundest most beautiful little Sugar Baby watermelon any of us had ever seen in our entire lives. Of course we older kids were in on it but congratulated Johnny heartily on his superior gardening skills and his prize watermelon. He just beamed from ear to ear. Aunt Gloria put it in the fridge so it would be a nice cold dessert on that hot, summer night.

I will never forget his little face or for a moment, the sheer happiness and delight that one watermelon could bring to one small boy. He never forgot it, either. Many years later, when we reconnected over the telephone, after going our separate ways for a long time the way adults just do, we spoke with delight of the watermelon story again.

And just for that moment, remembering, we were those two kids again. Rest in Peace, Johnny. You and your watermelon are forever in my heart.

Love from your cousin,

Vicki