MY STORY REVISITED #121-THE WRENCH REVISITED
last week i reached into my right back pocket of my gardening blue jeans
felt the metal tool
removed it
before i used it
i paused
i was in the garden alone
it was quiet and peaceful
i thought of him
i could hear his laugh
and
could see his smile in my brain somewhere
this was one of the items my younger brothers wife gave me after he died
i told her i wanted something he used like a tool to remember him
its something i use frequently as i work in the community garden
usually working on an irrigation line or water line
its a tool he used as he managed a local water system
a side job he did besides being a fireman and later a deputy sheriff
he lost his battle just a few months before i wrote this blog below
his war was with alzheimers disease
it won the war like it always does
he was diagnosed in his early 50s and died at 63
his battle like most of the cases of alzheimers was not a pleasant one especially in the last half of his war
i think of him often
especially
when i use this blue wrench
________
01-17-2014
those of you who read my blog regularly know that
my younger brother died last summer in the final stages
of alzheimers disease
a disease that i may have based on all the testing that
i have had done
time will tell on this
my younger brother was a fireman then later a
deputy sheriff who also had the drug dogs for
the department
he was also quite talented doing things
that many of us never learned to do
built his own house could take a car apart and fix it
clean a deer weld and fix most anything
he and i when we were younger always seemed to share
a motorcycle a bike a moped a car a truck
but he was always the one that fixed it
he also ran the local water system for the area where he lived
he never liked the idea of my collecting rainwater and drinking it
he was always worried about it being clean enough
since he was particular about the water system he worked with
after his death i told my sister in law
that i wanted one of his tools
a wrench a screwdriver a hammer a chisel whatever
that i could have and use
and
when i used it i would always think of him
so in the mail this last week came a package from
my sister in law
what the heck was this
when i unwrapped it there was that wrench shown
in the picture above
she said in her letter
this is a wrench he always had in his pocket
so this last week i took this wrench
its worn some
and it should last me through the next several years while
i am still able to figure out how to use it
he must have used it a lot on his rounds checking and working
on the water meters
so this last week here at the country n it was in my back pocket
all the time
i realized after a couple of days why he chose this one
i opened water valves with it
opened a can of pipe glue with it
took off and replaced a dripper for my chicken waterer with it
opened the top off a bottle of liquid fertilizer
used it to disconnect my battery in my old truck that had died
then used it to replace the battery
so now i know why he had that tool in his pocket all the time
now i have my cellphone in my front pocket
my costanza billfold in my left back pocket
wonder if thats why my disk ruptured from all
that pressure on that side
my brothers wrench in my right back pocket
as i wander around my country n place
always thinking of him as i use that wrench
thanks bro
__________
i always pause when i use his wrench
commonly i am by myself
here is an update on my war
my mri of the brain is negative for microbleeds
i got my 15th infusion of aduhelm or aducanumab last friday at ucla
i will have another mri in 2 weeks and then again in april
my next infusion will be the first week of march so i can get back on my regular infusion schedule
so far
no headaches or other symptoms
the organicgreen doctor
No comments:
Post a Comment