P-Money....

My brother....is a great guy. Today is his 36th birthday. Typing that seems so strange...so surreal...are we really that old??? Paul has been by my side since the beginning...we were born 16 short months apart...and yes, my mother cried when she found out she was pregnant with me! She had 3 kids in a three year span...my hero! We were always partners in crime....mischievous playmates that tormented my poor mother. We would dig in the dirt...play with trucks....ride our bikes....decorate our house for Christmas(in the spring)! What memories we have.

As time moved on we stayed close through middle school and then in high school moved on to being the kind of brother and sister who had the same friends and hung out together. We even went to every high school dance together....with dates people, we didn't live in West Virginia! We laughed...oh, how he could make me laugh....and still does! We would stay up late at night with our friends watching Saturday Night Live back in the days of Chris Farley and then proceed to reenact every act the following week! We fished together...rode to school together...hung out on the same wall in high school.....he was my buddy!

My senior year of high school, my brother was in college and I was finishing up at our beloved BHS. On Mother's day of '93 we got the phone call that no one ever wants to get. There had been an accident and Paul was in the ER...they could not tell us anything. My parents and I drove that 10 miles or so not knowing if he was alive...if he was ok....we simply just prayed. He had been ejected from the car...and not breathing when they found him. They had to do CPR 3 times on the way to the hospital....he had over 600 stitches in his face....a broken back and arm....but he was alive. ALIVE! He would never be the same....he had several plastic surgery's on his face to rid the scars....but those slight scars now are not even visible to me anymore. They are a part of Paul....they represent his life to me....God's grace to me! I was immobilized during his hospitalization...I didn't want to go to school...run track...nothing. I just wanted to sit at the hospital and talk to him. Help him when he needed something....he was my brother...my friend.

Now we live 8 hours apart...he has a wonderful wife and two precious kids....and I miss him. I miss sitting up at night talking to him...laughing with him. I thank God that I can still call my brother and we pick up right where we left off....we're cool like that! I love to hear him answer the phone when I call.....it's the same as it was in college.....a loud.....ssssuuupppp!!!! My brother....my friend!

On this day Paul, I hope you have an awesome Birthday...and remember that your little sister in Georgia thinks the world of you! I pray this year is blessed by our God more than ever and that HE would continue to work in your life! I love you P-Money......