05/09/2026
10 years ago today, I got the call that changed my life forever. My brother was gone. It’s hard to believe an entire decade has passed. Almost one third of my life has now been lived without him here, yet somehow he is still part of so much of it.The day I was born, he said it was the best day of his life. The day he died was the worst day of mine. There’s nothing quite like the bond with an older brother. Grief comes in waves, and over the last 10 years I feel like I’ve experienced every one of them. Even simple questions like, “Do you have siblings?” catches you off guard. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about him — through inside jokes, funny stories, songs he loved, or listening back to episodes of his podcast, “Hot Takes,” just to hear his voice again.
Recently, I heard Stephen Colbert say, “If you are grateful for your life, you have to be grateful for all of it.” I’m still trying to understand that, but I do know grief changes you. It makes you hold other people’s pain differently. The devotional I read this morning talked about how we all go through storms in life, and the only way through them is trusting God to carry us through the middle of it. That’s what gives me peace, even in the storm.
I would do anything to have him back. But even though he is no longer physically here, I know he lives on through the people who loved him and the lives he impacted in just 29 years.
Until we meet again, big bro — it is well with my soul. 🤍
JTN III- 10/3/86-5/9/16
