My brother Matthew

     Matthew would have been 28 years old today. He was one of a kind. I never thought in a million years I would ever have to write his obituary, but I did. Matthew was the brother that when he wasn't around, you wanted him there. When he was around, he could drive you crazy. That was part of his charm and he had lots of it. I can't tell you how many woman ( didn't matter the age or size ) told us how pretty Matthew made them feel. He was able to befriend any one, any place. Which was made evident by his many friends from all over. He lead a life of learning, adventure, and love. I recently found a post card he sent me from Lourdes, it brought back the loss and sadness I forgot, but it also brought this amazing joy for having been a part of his life.
   Brothers and sisters often don't get a long and there were times we were no different. We also shared wonderful times and times that weren't so wonderful, but looking back those are among my favorite.
Mom had been gone one morning and for some reason only Matthew (11) and I (15) were left in the house. Being board, as we normally were we took to wrestling. I don't remember who started it, but one thing lead to another and you know the saying "it's all fun and games until some one gets an eye poked out". Well that's what happen. He punched me smack-dab in the eye, not hard so much, as just right. Shattered my contact lens in pieces. For those of you that don't realize, that's extremely hard to do. We had to call our aunt, she came over and made sure all the pieces were out. My eye was fine. I still laugh when I remember his fist, as scrawny as it was coming at my face and the absolute amazement when it made contact. We still wrestled, even as adults. A little push here, big shove there. He made any situation more fun, for better or worse.

    

        He wrote while visiting Europe " So I think I've done just about everything I could have done, my life is complete." Matthew was right, for the short time he was here, he lived to the fullest.