My brother, who has Down syndrome, was hiding something in his bag. My wife was afraid he’d hurt our baby. I told her she was wrong, but I couldn’t explain it. Then, in the middle of the night, our baby’s scream changed everything.
When Mom died of a stroke, I was twenty-four and Jamie was sixteen.
Jamie has Down syndrome. Mom had been the center of his whole world.
Three days later, at the funeral, everyone kept saying the same thing.
“If you need anything, call me.”
“Anything at all.”
By four o’clock the church was almost empty.
Jamie has Down syndrome.
Jamie sat in the front pew, pulling at a tie that was too big for him.
“Where do I live now?”
I looked at him. He was staring at the floor.
“With me.”
“For how long?”
“What do you mean?”
“With me.”
He shrugged. “Until you get married?”
Something in my chest cracked.
“Jamie, you’re my brother. You’re not going anywhere.”
He nodded once.
I put my arm around his shoulders. “Come on, Jamie-Bamie. Let’s go home.”
I didn’t know that sentence would decide the next thirteen years of my life. I’d have said it anyway.
“Jamie, you’re my brother. You’re not going anywhere.”
The first time he took the bus alone, I texted before it even left the stop.
Call me when you get there, Jamie-Bamie.
“You said I do it myself,” he said when he finally called.
“You can do it yourself and still call me.”
“I did. I’m calling.”
“Good.”
I didn’t know that sentence would decide the next thirteen years of my life.
“Bye.”
His first paycheck from the garden center came a month later. He frowned at it for a full minute.
What happened next changed everything… FULL STORY on the next page.
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