Memorial Day

I was gonna do a Podcast about this but I’ve decided to write about it instead. Tomorrow is Memorial Day. This Thursday is my late brothers birthday. Around his birthday and the time he died I start getting depressed. I have decided to use this time to not dwell on the negative aspects of my brothers death but on what made me love him so much.

Growing up my brother was a major influence on my life. From the fact that I draw and watch wrestling. The drawing led to my writing so I might as well add that to the category of things he helped me with. To know Kevin was to know a guy that always had a smirk on his face. He was also always seconds away from saying something that would offend half of the room and make the other crack up laughing. He was that type of guy.

Kevin played a lot of sports. He played a lot of sports well. When I was really tiny he would slap his football helmet on me and I’d wear his mouthpiece (very gross in hindsight) and run around the house pretending to be a football player. I would wear the shoulder pads too and be swimming in them. Later he played basketball. I would go out with him and his friends when they played against my brother Luther and his friends. It was fun. I would be too small to play but would be the designated pager (remember those?), gold chain, ear ring, Gatorade boy. I didn’t mind. I just liked hanging around him.

Later after he moved out we would catch up on Monday nights while watching wrestling. Then we would talk about work and the family and how crazy everything was. When I had questions about random shit he would talk to me about it. He rarely ever complained about anything in his life. Not his kids, his job, or his apartment. He just seemed to enjoy life.

When I hear stories on the news about people that die its always the happy people. Its never the negative assholes that we see daily. It’s the ones that enjoy life and touch hundreds of peoples lives. Kevin always had me laughing. From my earliest memories to way later in life he always knew how to make me laugh whether I wanted to or not. He was the kinda guy that would give me a spine buster one minute and then be sitting on the bed with me teaching me how to play dice or eating Sugar Daddies. Kevin was the one that got me a drawing board. One Christmas he just said “Here” and handed me this box. I opened it and it was filled with every single art supply I could ever want! Then he dragged in a big ass box and I put together my new drawing board. I spent hours drawing like a madman.

When I think of my brother I think of nothing but good times and laughter. I can only dream of touching as many lives as he did in his 32 years on the planet. I have been around for 30 and haven’t even gotten close. On a side note, when everyone was going through his stuff it turns out that he was still drawing. And he was way better than me.

Rockets

Kevin F. Powers 1969-2001