Twenty years ago I couldn’t imagine being friends with my brother. I can remember my mom saying, “someday you two will be the best of friends.” Every time he said that, he always had one word for her: “Never!”
It started from the day he started talking. He couldn’t pronounce my name, so he ended up calling me Tif. Where she got Tif from Catherine is beyond me. That was just the beginning.
When I started walking, I would always walk towards my things and of course I would grab them and throw them. On many occasions, he broke or damaged my treasures.
Then school started, which was a nightmare. My mom would ask me to help him with his homework, which he never wanted to do in the first place. We would end up fighting because he never wanted to finish his work.
But worst of all, were his teenage years. She would hide my stuff, she would go through my stuff, she would just do everything she could to annoy me. I remember thinking how I wish he would grow up. He constantly made fun of me for one thing or another.
And, it happened, it grew. I’m not sure exactly at what age this happened. But, she did. And oddly enough, we became the best of friends. I recently read a saying that really applies to my brother:
“First you were a nuisance,
then a brother,
And now my friend.”
When I read that saying, it made me smile. I remembered all the things he used to do. My mother’s voice echoed in my mind.
Today, my brother is truly a friend. Someone he can count on through thick and thin. He has become more of a friend than a brother. Although from time to time his childhood jokes still come up, now I know the great friend I have in him. I often quote the saying,
“When I count my blessings, I count you twice.”
The possibilities in life are endless. And I hope this story reminds you that never, say, never!
