Bjcorbin's Blog

Today is my brother Kevin’s 50^th birthday and it seems like a good time to reflect on all that his life has meant to me. I suppose that I could do what a lot of siblings do and wait until his funeral to say something nice, but for me that is a trend worth bucking.  Kevin is just 372 days older than me and through a quirk in the government education system (we lived in Germany at the time) we wound up in the same grade throughout school.  For most of those years we shared a room, played on the same sports teams and had a lot of the same friends.  Despite that closeness, no one ever mistook us for twins.  Kevin was a blond haired, blue eyed, athletic type; who looked a lot like my dad.  While I was a smallish kid, with much darker hair and looked a lot like my mom.  Beyond just our appearance, Kevin seemed to be almost stoic compared to my emotionally volatile persona.  Generally, you had to pull words from him, whereas you’d be more apt to stick a sock in my mouth just to shut me up.  He tended to do most things well, while I frequently turned things into somewhat of a crisis.  As I watch my own kids interact with each other, I have a new appreciation for how patient both he and my brother Tom were with me.  I had a big time chip on my shoulder about being the youngest and I deserved a thumping a lot more frequently than I got one.  Despite the occasion scrum, I derived a great deal of security from my relationship with Kevin; as a matter of fact, when we were little, I’d crawl into bed with him when I was afraid.  In those moments, he could have paid me back for my often bad attitude, but I never recall him making me feel small.  I doubt that many annoying little brothers could make such a claim.

Surprisingly, Kevin didn’t stick with college any longer than I did and shortly after that, we joined the Navy together.  Just after boot camp, we went our separate ways, as I headed for the submarine fleet and Kevin headed for an aircraft carrier (i.e. the USS Enterprise).  We’ve not lived in the same area for any appreciable amount of time since then and we’ve both stayed busy raising our families.  Despite the miles and years, our sense of closeness has never really diminished.  Kevin is good about keeping in touch and we see each other when we can.  Both of our lives have taken some unexpected turns along the way and it’s been good to have someone you can trust in those seasons.  At 50, Kevin finds himself at somewhat of a crossroads, which I pray is the opening of a great new chapter in his life.  Whatever the coming days bring, I am grateful for all the years we’ve already had.  God knew from beginning that I’d need a lot of help and Kevin was undoubtedly part of His plan.  As we share the journey of discovering who God made us to be, I feel certain that He will continue to meet us along the way; and I pray that I can be as big a blessing to Kevin as he has been to me.  Happy Birthday big brother!