My Beautiful Older Brother Joel

Using the word Beautiful for a man may seem funny, but he truly was beautiful, inside and out. He had this long lovely hair, I was so jealous because my hair never looked as good as his, course he also went to great lengths to keep it that way, always conditioning it and sitting under the hair dryer. Mind you, this was the 70's, Men really worshiped their hair, ha ha.
Looking in the photo albums I notice Joel often had a child sitting with him, he was either reading to them or putting a toy together at Christmas, he was very patient. He had several girlfriends that had children, but he never had a child of his own. He made a point of stopping to visit Lance and I when we lived in Nebraska, I really enjoyed that, even a short visit from him kept us laughing for days, he had such a great talent for telling funny stories.
He had a huge kind heart and when it got broken, he couldn't bare to live another day, he ended his life October 1 1989, he was 32 years old, I have missed him terribly, for years my year went from September to November, I just blocked out October all together. This past year that I have had so many health issues to deal with I think of him more than ever, its important to deal with depression and those "low" feelings right away, and I do. I know he would be so proud of what we all became and how close our family is today. Sometimes I think of he and my other brother Jay who passed away in May of 1998 at the age of 40, looking down and laughing with us and I smile at the thought. They were both great Men and will always be missed.