Car talk

Friday evening when I drove over to my sister-in-law's, my niece's husband came out of the barn and told me I should get my brake pads replaced because of the metal-on-metal noise they were making. He said that was a warning the brake pads were wearing out. I appreciated the tip.

It made me remember when my brother Dan was in his final days. At that time, my car had a bad muffler, so that it was very noisy when I drove around. Dan had very little strength (he had ALS) but after one of my last visits, perhaps the last, my sister-in-law told me that as I was driving away, Dan was murmuring about my car and concerned about my getting it fixed.

That was Dan. He was very much a big brother, wanting to make sure that his sister's car would run okay, even as he neared death. He would have liked to have fixed everybody's problems before he died. When we were kids, I found his older-brotherliness overbearing, but when we were grownups, what had been (or seemed like) bossiness changed to active care for my well-being, and I appreciated it.



Big brother was watching out for me

I did eventually get my muffler fixed, probably with the help of another wonderful guy, and that's my dad. Now I'll get the brakes fixed with Dad's help again. I've got some good guys in my family.