Sam was my brother

My sympathies. I lost my brother in 2000 when he was 57. Way too soon. his works of art were his three children. May our brothers RIP.

Odd feeling to be still here and they are gone.

My sympathy, ragman. That is way too young to go.

And, today would make 66 for Sam. The cheater. He went around making people think he was one year younger. But you can't fool an older brother.

Not ready to end mourning yet. Perhaps next year.

Of course you can't, edgar.
Why did he do that?

66 years old. Much too young to die.
(My thoughts are with you today.)

When he changed his name, he put down a younger age, at a whim, and nobody caught it.

Ah. But you did, of course.
He must have had his reasons, edgar.

When Sam changed his name, he was through with being Wayne. He felt he could be whatever, even a different age. He cut off communications with all the people from his past, who were associated with bad memories. He even cut me off a few times.

To live his life completely differently, to be whatever he wanted to be.
Wow, that's a pretty determined commitment for change.

He stuck with it about forty years, even to the very end.

You've got to admire that, respect his strength & his integrity.
I'm glad you & he were able to reconcile, after he'd initially planned to include you amongst the "left behind" people of his past life.

I just read the whole thread. I laughed, I cried and I'm in awe of the talent one family can have. Thank-you for sharing your stories.

Sam's head was harder than a hickory knot, but so is mine. Anyway, after I got my first computer, I searched his name and found his email address. I invited him to view the family photos I had online. He melted on receiving the invite and we were close thereafter.

Thanks, ceili. The comments on here mean a lot to me.

Exactly what I was thinking, Ceili.

If you could post another of his cartoons edgar, Id be appreciative. I enjoyed them.

I lost my brother in law to lung cancer about a month and a half ago and, daily, Ive been missing his calmness as a presence. He and I werent close for many yers also because of some misunderstandings. However,within the last 5 or so years wed also had a reconciliation and wed become two really great correspondents by phone,e-mail, or rndom visit. He was one of those guys I could just count on and I hoped he thought the same of me. He was a genius in wood working and could make anything, he was my wood sensai.
When he left us, the empty spot at the table was so bad in the last few weeks that, whenever we had his wife (my wifes sister) down at the beach, Id want to set a chair for him and Id automatically set table ware , not thinking that he isnt there anymore. Id get these really knifeblade eyes from my wife whod point her chin at the extra serving and then shed really narrow her eyes like "Im gonna kill you", Then I realized my mistake and Id feel bad about it until my wifes sister would say something that let me know that she could understand the mistake . We still havent gotten to the point where we could just sit around and tell stories about events and occurences where his life touched all of ours (You know the kind that everyone is supposed to bring up at the funeral as a "celebration" of the life just gone).
Sorry for bringing it up in your thread but its the first (and only time) that the subject occured to me here (at least in public) and your thread was just there and I thought Id share it with you.

I can imagine today is a mixed bag day. Clearly your brother Sam was quite talented and it's once again proven in this painting. Your brother must have been someone to be truly proud about. Hope Sam's doodling up there in the great drawing room in the sky.

So happy belated birthday Roger and I'm terribly sorry for your losses EB.

I welcome your comments, fm. I understand exactly what you are saying. I lost Roger in 1969 and I still feel his presence daily. But, with Sam, I feel more at liberty to toast and fete him, because of the relationship we had. We were joined together in childhood by a life that gave us nothing except each other. Our natures were not the same, clearly. He was politically very conservative. He kept a large color photo of Ronald Reagan on his wall. I am one step from being total socialist. But we developed a dependance that disagreements could not shake off. I find myself commenting to him quite spontaneously any time of the day.