He's My Brother

“You take care of your younger brother. Don’t let him cry so loud. We don’t have enough money for the surgery,” my Mother reminded me once again before she goes to work.

He was born with hernia. It became apparent when he was few week-old.

One morning, he never stopped crying. I panicked. I tried so hard to entertain him and stop him from crying. My Mother is still at the office. She will be home in 2 hours. Maybe he will stop crying by then. It was the first time I saw him cried that hard. I was nervous seeing the reddish contents bulging out on his lower torso. He was only 4 months. At that very moment, I thought he really needs the surgery. He’s in pain.

My Mom arrived after 30 minutes. I let my younger sister go to her office and report the sad news. We rushed him to the hospital. My Mom was crying. I know he’s in deep pain. I was so terrified to lose my baby brother.

“Shhh…don’t cry now. You’ll be fine. The Doctors will help you,” my Mother gave him a reassuring smile. As if he understood, he stopped crying. He behaved as what my Mother told him like a grown up. We were all so impressed of him. He’s only 4 month-old!

The surgery came out very successful and most importantly, it was free. The well-respected surgeons happened to visit the hospital in the island for charitable works. Fortunately, my Mom had her Medicare cover all the other expenses.

He grew up to be a responsible, smart kid. One time, he came home fuming and looking for knives. “I’m going to kill all of you!” he screamed. We were so shocked. Who are your enemies? We almost shouted in chorus.

“It’s your fault Ma” he exclaimed. “You kept telling me not to play so hard ever since I was a kid. It’s not good to my health. Now that I don’t engage myself to outdoor sports, you’re all calling me gay!” he continued on.

Ah, you just don’t know how bad we felt at that time. My Mother can’t even recall those words and didn’t realize he took it so seriously.

Well, my brothers are baby no more. It’s a good feeling to see them grow and define their own selves. They’re all in college now. His brothers (older & younger) would love to call him their “baby-sitter”, lol! He’s not like them who would invite friends for a drinking session while watching basketball on TV. He helped them with their school projects. I trusted him the money for all their expenses. I don’t even smell any sibling rivalry between them. Basically, he gained some respect for being so responsible.

How time flies! Here they are 10 years ago.
And now, they're way bigger than me, hehehe... Do I sound like a Mom? haha!