MY "BIG BROTHER" NICK

          Chronologically, my brother Nick was 

three years younger than me.  

But in so many, many wonderful ways, 

he was my BIG brother.

          Despite his wicked sense of humor and sense of fun, he was born with a mature head on his broad shoulders.  Married soon after college to his beloved Kathy, his perfect soulmate (in humor and all ways wonderful), his marriage remained loving and rock-solid.  They were always "in love".

          He stayed with his first job at Montgomery Ward's for most of his working life--a true "company man"....until Ward's folded, and he moved on to Staples.

          His friends from school were lifelong friends, and he was truly loved by these friends.

          He was the center of the universe for our family...he was the only sibling really close to our Dad...he was the beautiful son revered by our mother.  He teased me endlessly, but really "got me", despite our great personality differences.  I was flighty where he was solid, restless where he was sure, irresponsible where he was dependable. 

          He was there to help his sisters shop for cars, console us in times of trouble, always be truthful and incisive even if it hurt, be the most serious and yet the most silly all in one heart-felt package.  Our Dad could confide in Nick about his fears after his first heart attack.  Nick fiercely "adopted" my sister Joanie when she was born...he called her his little "Deets" (no translation)...he was all of nine years old!

          He was mischievous in high school with his imitation of his teachers behind their backs. He could wield the wickedest funniest insults and yet had the softest lovingest marshmallow inside.

          Here is a sweet picture of Nick and I (my "signature bow" again), when photographers came to your house, and posed you atop side tables: 

See his sunny smile?  Always there, along with 

that dear twinkle in his eyes.

           But he was far from being a saint; he loved teasing me, and I was the perfect foil, because I "hated it".  He was in his glory when I began dating, and he could do impersonations of my dates.  We only had one phone, in the dining room.  I remember so well sitting on the floor in the corner, trying to escape his antics as I talked dreamily to some swain.

          After I saw the movie "Psycho", I was so jittery and couldn't sleep.  When I heard Nick come in from a date, I called him to come talk to me.  So of course he enters the bedroom, arm raised as if he was going to slaughter me, Norman Bates-style!  So funny!

            Nick and I shared the same body type (chubby), and Mom put us on a diet when he was about eleven, and I was fourteen.  We did both trim down, and enjoyed better body image through high school, as evident in our high school pictures (he went to Weber High School, I went to Siena High School, both in Chicago), looking awfully darn cute (in my humble opinion):

          He loved combing his abundant head of hair Elvis-style, wrinkling up his forehead to look incredibly "cool", as in this photo at age sixteen, the "Weber Whip":

  

          He met his beloved Kathy when they were students at DePaul University in Chicago, and married her at the age of twenty-two---a young groom, but a grownup head and spirit. 

          When I married some years later at the ripe old age of twenty-seven (some of the great-aunts were getting worried about me), he danced with me, his "younger sister" at my wedding.  The love shows:

          His legacy resides so poignantly in his family.  He died from a sudden heart attack at the too-young age of fifty-five, leaving three terrific children and (now) eight beautiful grandchildren.

          As part of his eulogy, I wrote about his heart--that they said it was his heart which gave out.  That would be impossible.

          Not that beautiful, loving, dear heart.