This evening, I was out riding my bicycle to Food4Less, when This Man's phone rang. It was my sister. Odd, certainly, seeing as only this past weekend, I'd mentioned that I should call her.
And for her to be calling me just out of the blue and there being no major holiday coming up, had me immediately nervous.
Something was wrong. It had to be.
Once the formalities were out of the way, my sister wasted no time in getting to the point.
"Victor isn't doing too good. I figured I'd better call you now just to let you know." She was talking about my second oldest brother. His liver was about to completely shut down. The result of too much drinking, poor health and a plethora of other bad conditions, it's suspected that he doesn't have much longer to live. She was talking so fast and at this point, I'd stopped pedaling my bicycle and came to a stop on the sidewalk. I couldn't take it all in.
My brother, Victor. Whenever This Man thinks about my siblings, I'm reminded of a scene in The Pianist. In the scene, Wladys Szpilman (played by Adrien Brody) and his sister Halina are walking among the mass of other Polish Jews, on their way to the German labor camps when Wladys says to his sister, "I wish I knew you better." That line is so moving that his sister, holding back the tears can only stifle a, "Thank you."

Of course in the next couple of days, This Man will go out of my way to start contacting family and friends--if only just to let everyone know what's going on. But at the same time, I got to thinking that I truly don't know my brothers and sisters the way I should.
My sister informed me that it may be too late for my brother to get a transplant and that from the waist down, his legs were black & swollen. It wasn't looking too good.
And as if I don't have enough to worry about, now This Man is really a mess!
I'll keep you posted.

Mahalo.