I lost my older brother twenty years ago. He was into fishing and hunting like most of us are. He always fished and hunted with me. He took me fishing when I was 6yo. I remember this trip in 1956
Like it was yesterday. He was only 52yo when he passed on.

One day my misses said to me before his death back in '86 why don't we buy land in Vermont so you and your brother could have a place to hunt. We did. But it's very hard to be up there without him now. Ever since he passed.

Ok about ten years ago his wife asks me to take his guns and give them to my son's. Here's where it gets weird. These guns were in there cases from our last hunting trip 11 years ago. There was no rust on any gun. Sitting in these carrying cases for 11 years and not have one bit of rust on them is unbelievable.
I have them in the safe all wiped down for my son's.

I felt his passing all over again when she gave me his stuff. I guess we never get over losing a family member. I felt honored that she thought of my son's. It's still tough when I see his stuff today. Bill

My oldest brother passed on at 43yo. Way too early for sure.

I feel your pain, as I have lost my oldest and youngest brothers.

It's true that you never get over the loss. My sister left us much too young. She was good-hearted, smart and funny and we miss her every day.

Sorry for you loss, I know how it feels. Lost my older brother 14 years ago on the first of Sept. He was 56 at the time. He was a hunter and fisherman also and he was great at it and he also liked to race car's and get into fights. He would rather go hunting and fishing then go to work which he did. Like you said I feel the pain all over whenever I do anything we use to do together. I feel sad thinking about his passing but there are the memories of the good and bad times.

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Psalm 23:4

Your sister in law did honor you by giving your sons the guns. I'm sure the sons will honor their uncle by taking great care of them. Good family story.

we're all just human; it's hard to let people pass on....
I imagine he's looking on, as we speak.
Those who've gone on ahead, aren't really gone, as long as we remember them.
Hope my Dad sees this...
TACC1

I'm about to lose my younger brother. He's 73. Hospice says he's down to days.

There's a special bond between brothers who are close. There certainly is with us. We have an endless fund of inside jokes, hilarious memories, and funny correspondence that spans sixty years.

We've mentored each other in many ways, though as the eldest of three siblings I'm kind of the de facto patriarch since our parents died.

It will be hard to let him go, but praying his death will be peaceful is the most loving thing I can do.

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Oh well, what the hell.

All of you guys have my sympathy. I'm very fortunate to have all my siblings intact.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

My older sister left us a couple of months short of two years ago. She was the sweetest, kindest, gentlest of our family and of all the woman
I know. I miss her so much. She was 69 when she passed away and I
felt so cheated she left us before she had her full measure of life. I
don't think we ever stop missing those we love when they are gone.
Sorry about your brother. I know you wish you had more years with him.

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Goose
I'm still standing.

My brother passed in 2001 from Sepsis complications after he had
been in a wheelchair as a parapalegic since 1976.
At our family Christmas get together the year he passed his wife
gave me his guns saying she thought he would've wanted me to
have them. I accepted them, thanking her and then broke down
like a baby in tears. He was my shootin' and fishin' bud.
Glad your brothers guns were in such good shape.
Take care of them and explain to your boys what he meant to
you. God Bless

Chuck

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They hold no Quarter

People grieve losses in different ways. As a friend and fellow lay minister likes to say, "There is no cookie-cutter grief."

As different as it can be though, there are some similarities that most people do experience, and what you're talking about here, BigBill, is perfectly normal.

It's said we don't get over grief, we get through it. To the other side, where the pain isn't as acute as it was at the beginning.

That doesn't mean, though, that we ever forget the person we lost. Remembering shared experiences, especially with objects or mementos of those times, will bring those pangs of loss back. Seeing a gun used on hunting trips together, like those you mentioned, is bound to cause a sense of that loss all over again. If it didn't, you wouldn't be feeling, loving human being.

I'm sorry that you lost your brother, always too young. If the roles had been reversed, I'm sure he would be feeling the same things when seeing those reminders of your times together.

You would want him to remember, right? And I'm sure you'd appreciate being remembered, and urge your brother to carry on and to derive as much enjoyment out of life as he could, just as you would have. And, if you wanted, even to use some of those same guns, and go to some of those same places, that you had shared with him.

Doing that is a tribute to those we loved. It's a wonderful and hard and beautiful thing. It honors our relationship for how special it was, and keeps memories alive so they can be remembered with fondness even amid their poignance.

It's also comforting to know that a time will come when you will see him again, in a place more incredible than can be imagined, and that "until then" is a more bearable way to grieve our loss, instead of as "goodbye."

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

I agree, we will see them again, our bodies are vessels to get us to the next life. Our creator picks and takes his angels first.

Both my older brothers passed on with no warning. It's good that they didn't suffer but it's hard on us/family/friends because so many things were left unsaid. We're blind sided by these early deaths we just never expected it.

Every time I go t my ccamp in Vt and open the door I smell my brothers cigarettes. I haven't been up there much since he passed. It doesn't feel right being there without him.

[QUOTE=BigBill;138057036] Our creator picks and takes his angels first.[QUOTE]

BigBill, as prevalent as this sentiment is among people. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree about its truthfulness.

I don't think He picks and chooses. What He does, I believe, is take eternal care of us before, during and after the time when death comes, as it surely will to all of us.

He is a loving Father, and Death was never part of his original perfect plan for the world He created.

But as a sign of his grace and mercy, He provides for us when that time comes. Whether by accident, by disease, by old age, or for whatever other cause, our bodies cease to live. Our Father takes care of our souls after that, and what an amazing concept that is -- perhaps even more than the miracle of the life here on earth that he gives us.

Thanks again for sharing with all of us, BigBill, and I hope that cabin where you and he shared many memories will, in time, become a place where you are comfortable and where you can honor his memory (and, I'm sure his wishes for you) by continuing to find peace and enjoyment there, and perhaps even sharing it with others in the same way you did with your brother. I think that would put a huge smile on his face where he is now.

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Ukraine -- now more than ever