It was a snowy, blustery night on March 8th, 1999. I remember it vividly as I walked to the window of the Gateway Technical College classroom just minutes before 7pm as I was about to teach my Medical Terminology class. I recall peering out at a particular tree which was being blasted by the wind. I thought to myself, “What an awful night.” It was at that very moment some 250 miles northeast of me, that my only brother, Allen Saint John Weslaski, age 33, tragically died in a car accident. He was all by himself about five miles from his farm on his way to work the graveyard shift at the Waupaca Foundry when the accident occurred. That was the night part of me died with him.
Where has the time gone? It has been fourteen years since then. What is really sad is that every year on March 8th since 1999 I would take some time out to remember my little brother Al. I would remember the time we played in a pile of leaves as small children, or when I encouraged him to jump off the high dive board at the swimming pool, or the times we played basketball together as teenagers. But this year I forgot to remember him. March 8th came and went without a thought.
I can’t remember what I was doing this past March 8th. It was a Monday. Typically I attend a business breakfast at 7 am. From there I go to Olympia Brown school to tutor a 3rd grade girl on spelling. Then I beeline to the office where I begin managing people and projects until nightfall. My life is not complicated, just busy.
I miss the summer days of hanging out with my brother at the outdoor municipal pool as youngsters. I also miss the recent years before his death of deer hunting, cutting firewood, and just being with him.
Al was a big guy, standing 6 feet 3 inches and weighing 220 pounds. He was much stronger than me and he used to tell me, “You got the brains, Kev, I got the brawl.” His nickname was “Big Al.” Yet he was a caring and loving man who cherished his wife, pets, home, and job. That’s all he ever wanted.
I always felt a sense of peace around Al. That peace has been taken from me but his memory lives on forever. I won’t ever forget my brother Al.
Published on April 26, 2013