Anyway

 My brother, Jack, Jackie, John Patrick Joseph Dolan, passed away sometime during the night of Oct. 18th in his sleep.  He had type 2 diabetes.  Partially related to his franchise business with Pepperidge Farm.  I say partially because diabetes is an illness that can be managed with diet and exercise.  I see now I am already moving into judgements about my brother.  It's hard not to.  He's my brother and I love him but it wasn't always easy.  

Anyway, there is a lot of history, 77 years, painful at times.  Not least of all in the difficulty in communicating with him.  As an adult he seemed to want to be left alone.  Outside of a joke or a jibe I don't think I ever knew what he thought.  I could go into his story, our story, but I would be the one telling it and I have little understanding of it.

Anyway, his remains were cremated.  There will be no more of his braggadocio, his wonderful sense of humor, his company too seldom enjoyed. 

At one point in his life he had a sailboat and lived on an inlet to the ocean.  I have a photo in my bedroom of my nephew Michael alone on a sailboat.  Let me believe they are together now.  And.  In our last conversation Jack asked if 'it', an afterlife, was possible.  I said yes to him then.  

Anyway, what else did I have, to give to my dying brother.