Tribute To My Brother "Chris"

I am the youngest out of three children, between our mom and dad.  Chris was the oldest.  This will be our first Christmas with out him.  He called me "Pete."  I love my brother and I miss him so much.  Growing up we had a close bond.  Chris,Cindy, and I.  We were an ornery threesome! Yet not much got by our dad!! Oh my!! DO NOT MAKE DAD MAD!!!  Since I was the youngest, I usually was the one who had to wake our dad up when he fell asleep in his recliner after work.  Our dad had a startle reflex about him and he would jump awake with a vigor that scared the crap out of me! LOL!  My dad was a "meat and potatoes" type a man when it came to eating supper.  He really has changed his eating habits over the years, which I am really delighted about.  When I was growing up we ate things fried in lard and bacon grease!!! The more grease , the tastier and the better!  Plus we lived in a small town with a small grocery store that had lots and lots of candy!  If we had money in our pockets we could buy candy for 1 penny each!!!  Hard to believe that now adays.  Pop was a nickel out of the pop machine.  Man, that was the life!  Kids could buy cigarettes for their parents! No ID required.  Heck we could even make our parents cigarettes in these little hand held machines!!! What fun! Where am I going with this?  I was a typical kid until the rug was pulled out from under my world, my sister's,and my brother's world in the summer of "1968." 

The bare foot, blue eyes,red headed , kid that I was ,foot-loose and fancy free world changed as I knew it on June 12th 1968. I was "7" then, but by the time I was "12", I was full blown anorexic and bulimic, and also a very depressed little girl.  My love for the Lord grew as a small child and my love for animals , a love I always have had continued to soar!!!  And by then food was my full blown enemy!  From the age of "7-12" my brother Chris and I developed a very close bond.  He looked out for me.  He looked out for my little black cocker spaniel, "Blackie" too.  We lived in a small town, and when ever a female dog would come into heat , Blackie would be on the prowl .  That little dog was one of my best friends back then and I tucked him into bed everynight, except the nights he didn't come home.  Chris would go out searching for him and bring him home to me.  Chris would also pump the drinking water from the well when it was my turn.  We had indoor plumbing, we just could not drink the tap water and had to drink from the well outside. 

I wish that depression and EDO's be it under eating or over eating, anorexia, obesity, there are sooo many different EDO's that affect people each day, would have been addressed and talked about openly instead of hidden and swept under the rug .  I know that I would not have the physical complications that I still have today if there had been an earlier intervention for my EDO's.  If only.....I Love You Chris LeRoy Mason and I will see you some day and we will stroll down Heaven's Lane Once Again, Foot Loose And Fancy Free!