Of Kindness and Brothers

"A brother is a friend given by Nature."

~ Jean Baptiste Legouve

One of my brothers has the patience of a saint.  Over the years, he has allowed me to enlist him in all types of projects, from rotating a mattress to cleaning out a car.  He doesn't ask a lot of questions.  He agrees to do something if he can and then he arrives on time.  Being quite a bit younger, he also is infinitely more tech savvy than I am, so he developed an Excel spreadsheet for my Christmas card list and tweaks it for me every year. 

Recently, I had a video Skype call with a colleague, but I was not sure of a couple of things.  My poor brother was stuck in a hotel room in a blizzard-affected Northeast city.  With his usual good cheer, he helped me to figure out my Skype issues.  As it turns out, my colleague called me on the phone to say that he was having technical difficulties and would I mind not Skyping. 

On a recent evening, I texted my brother because I needed his help wording something in language that he knows better than I do.  Before telling him what I needed, I asked him where he was.  Still on business travel and at dinner.  "Anything I can help with? Skype issues?" he asked.  I told him what it was and he said he could review it later.  Because I needed to send the communication out immediately, I asked him a couple of questions, which he immediately answered.  It ended up as these things do -- while he was at dinner, he revised what I needed to send.  These moments remind me of how very grateful I am for the patience and generous spirit of my brother, who is a true friend.