Brothers Forever 2

Brothers Forever 2

Uncle Jim was pretty special. He knew we did not want to be separated after our parents were killed and he welcomed us into his home even though he was not married and, I am sure, had no great desire to have three brats under foot. The first day we were there we all sat around the table in his kitchen. Jim began the discussion, “There is not much I can do to take away the pain of what you have lost, I lost a lot too. The only thing I can do is help by providing you a safe place to live and stay together. The money from the law suit and insurance will be in your own accounts, but you will not need to touch it for a long time; I will make sure you are taken care of, we will talk about those specifics later. This is your home now, and I want you to treat it that way. I am away from here a lot of the year but I will make sure there is someone here to take care of you while I am gone.”

He continued, “For the time being you will have rooms in the house; you boys will have to share a room for the time being. I am talking to a contractor this afternoon to have three small apartments built behind the house, when that is complete you will all have your own private areas including computers, phones, TV and anything else we agree you need. One of the reasons for this is the fact that I am not married and I feel it would be better that you have your privacy as well as me having my privacy. The one thing I will demand of you is that we all gather for dinner when possible and, if I am not here, you will eat together; family is the most important thing in our lives.”

“Now, school; I have arranged for private teachers for what is left of this year, then you will be registered in a private school not far from here. Your father saw school as being more important than I did, but he was right, you will have a better chance in this world with the best education you can get. I know it will be tough this year but I do expect your grades to be high and that you do the best you can. I am sorry we are getting to know each other better under these circumstances, and I know I am not your father, nor do I intend to replace him, but we are family and we will work as family.”

The next couple of months seemed to fly by and we soon had our own “little apartments. I guess by some standards they were small, but two thousand square feet of living space is quite comfortable. Each of the apartments was completely self sufficient with a kitchen, baths…the whole bit.