Happy Birthday, Noe.

This is gonna be a serious one. Those with a weak disposition may want to skip it and wait for the next installment.

I was gonna write a real blog today but I figured I was going to set this day aside in memory of my late younger brother Noe. Today would have been his 22nd birthday. He passed away on Christmas of 1999 at the early age of eleven.

I am not gonna say we always got along. We were brothers so we fought our fair share. He even peed on me when I was a kid once because I made him mad. To be fair, he did warn me but I didn't think he would do it. I was wrong.

He was dealt a difficult hand when he was eight and, after three arduous years of battling leukemia, he passed on.

I miss him though. It is at times like these that I wish I believed in Heaven or an afterlife. I do hope he is still out there, somewhere, in some shape or form.

Sometimes, I feel like he got cheated because he did not get to experience more of life. I think about what life would have been if our roles were reversed. I still don't know if living is really the prize or if being released from this dark world that really is the goal. I will never know. I am just grateful that I had him in my life for as long as I did. I think in the end, that is all that matters.