Tommy, my big brother.

Every day, when my older brother came home from school, I would greet him at our door.  He is 12 years my senior, and was in high school in my first memories.

I had a traditional way of greeting him when he came home from school.  I'd say, "HI TOMMY!" then I'd punch him.  Well, as a 4 year old I was about the exact height that a 16 year old boy does NOT want to be punched at.  I always ended up punching him in the crotch, and he'd always end up flying a few feet back, and he'd be hurt, but I'd laugh.

And this was the way of things.  

Later, when I was four, my brother was watching me while my parents were out doing some random thing, he made me grilled cheese and soup, and while he was pouring soup, some ended up on my shoulder and burning me.  I had a pretty bad burn for a few weeks, and he felt totally awful about it.  He tried not to let me know how much it bothered him, but that night, after I was supposed to be sleeping, I could hear him talking to Mom about it.

As my sister, my brother and I got older, we got a sick and twisted delight out of irritating the living hell out of one another.  Tommy would bring a girl over, and Nikki, (my older sister) and I would sit between them and start "boys vs. girls" comments.  This inevitably lead to my brother's girlfriend at the time teaming up with my sister and I, and her telling him "stop picking on your poor, defenseless baby sisters!"  And we'd giggle, a LOT.  Cackle, in fact.  In those days, there was a lot of cackling.

On Christmas mornings, we had this Moose that played Christmas Carols.  Anyone who knows my brother knows he doesn't always wake up in the most pleasant way.  My parents had a rule: No opening presents until Tommy is awake.  My sister and I knew this rule well, and also knew that Tommy woke similarly to a rabid bear and so, we would take the Moose, (its name was "Chris-Moose") and we'd come down the stairs...
So Tommy would here the "Thump, Thump, Thump, Thump" of our feet
Then he'd hear the Moose, which got more and more out of tune each year...
We'd start it, and throw it like a hand grenade and run like gazelles.
And the out of tune Moose would fly through the air, and would always manage to hit my brother straight in the face.
Good thing that always made him laugh!

Or then, there were the summer nights when Tommy would have a bunch of friends over, and we would play Risk in our basement for hours and hours on end, and usually Tommy's friend would win, but not always.  

And as Tom got older and didn't always have a date to bring with him to sledding, bonfires, concerts and movies, he'd bring me along instead.  I was his nearly constant companion, I always looked forward to spending time with him.  I always felt special when I was with him, like I was the coolest little kid around, because I had all of these adult friends and they all thought I was cool, too.

The year I turned 18 and graduated high school, my parents went through a pretty ugly divorce.  At the head of it, when my parents started divvying up their things, Tom was instrumental at convincing my parents to allow me to take a 12 hour greyhound bus trip by myself to go see my best friend in Minneapolis.  The day before I went, my parents were having a really awful day and Tom took me out of the house.  First, he brought me to the Detroit Yacht Club to visit an old friend of his, then he took me to a bonfire.  There was lots of swimming and fun, and a minor amount of drinking.  He did all of this to GET ME AWAY from things that would undoubtedly cause me psychological damage.

He was there for the birth of all four of my kids, (well, soon afterward anyway.)
My big brother has always, ALWAYS taken care of me.

Now, he's in the hospital, has no insurance, and is missing gigs because of his illness.  This was the weekend he was finally going to be in the "Black" again as far as money, and he can't do his gigs, plus he's got all these medical bills piling up.  

What ELSE could I do?  I had to help him!  So, I started trying to come up with creative ways to get him money, and therefore all of this activity that people have been seeing around facebook.

So, with the help of my brother's wonderful community of friends, we've created a Bake Sale, Craft night, and silent auction to help raise money for my wonderful brother.  If you are on facebook and you are interested in going to help, the event can be found Here!

Otherwise, if you want to help out but aren't into that whole "social interaction" thing, here are a few links to directly donate to the cause. 

Go fund me: Help Dr. Toon!Paypal

Thank you very much for reading my sappy little story!