He Laughed

Friday was our day to visit Tim, so Rachel picked me up at about 2 pm and we headed off to find our big brother. I signed him out while he got his jacket and dragged Rachel out to the car. This is our routine.

We took our usual drive through the drumlins of Wayne County NY past farms and fields, horses and bison, and that little ski slope called Brantling Hill, the one that produced a gold medal Olympic skier. We talked along the way. Well, Rachel and me anyway. Tim listened.

I'm always trying to come up with memories, and this time it was a song I remember Mom singing when we were small, Wonderful Words of Life, one I was sure Tim would recall. Rachel didn't remember the song. She remarked on how I have a better memory and I reminded her that some of my memories go back nearly five years farther than hers and that Tim's go back another five beyond mine. The we talked, for some reason, about that DNA test we want to do just for fun and Rachel said, "What if we find out I was switched at birth by mistake?" She glanced over at Tim in time to see him almost laugh out loud.

We're used to getting precious little reaction from this brother of ours. As little girls we had great fun asking him his name because he would belt it out loud, "Timmy Plotzker!" One time he surprised us by saying he was Henry, and we all laughed because it was so unexpected.

I took my camera along for the ride yesterday and we snapped a couple pictures out by the car. Rachel looked at the one of her and Tim and said, "Perfect! I love it!" and he laughed out loud.

Back in the house I went to sign him back in while he hung up his jacket. I turned around in the dining room to see that he had followed me in which is highly unusual. (He normally bolts for the bathroom.) As he got closer he reached out, took my hand, and wrapped me in a gentle hug. Then he put his face down so I could give him a kiss. Last week he'd done this with Rachel. What a blessing! What a gift!