December 1, 2024

My brother, Len, older by four years, mostly ignored me for the first sixteen years of my life. He was a popular, bright, athletic, blue-eyed blond, filled with mischief and frequently disobedient. He was a handful for my parents and he was my nemesis. One time, on the rare occasion he did homework, he pushed me off my carefully arranged homework site, and the commotion attracted my mother and punishment for him. To get even, he nicknamed me "little hippo".

Len died this past summer at age 96; our love and respect for each other grew each year as we aged.