My Brother Hank

I mailed my brother Hank his birthday card today. The card is late (I'm terrible about mailing stuff) but I don't think he'll mind. The reason for that is because the card has a picture of a beautiful girl on it and Hank loves pictures of beautiful women. But most importantly, it has a $25 gift card to Olive Garden in it. Hank LOVES food and Olive Garden restaurants have very good food. I doubt there is a restaurant Hank likes more. Also Hank will also get a delight in spending someone elses money. While Hank is a wonderful person and a real character, he can also be something of a tightwad. He doesn't like spending his own money but he'll gladly help you spend yours!

While we're on the subject of Hank, let me tell you a little about him. He is pretty incredible. If ever a kid was born with the deck stacked against him, it was Hank. Hank should have been a perfectly normal kid but thanks to a drunk anesthesiologist at birth, he suffered irreparable brain damage. He subsequently underwent something like 19 operations to try to fix the damage. The last operation he underwent was the most radical. One problem that they discovered was that Hank's brain was sending to strong a signal to him limbs. When Hank would try to reach for something, he ended knocking the object away instead of grasping it. Because of this, Hank had to be strapped down in a wheel chair so he wouldn't try to grasp something when someone tried to feed him. The doctors decided that if they trimmed back one of the nerves in Hank's back, it would cut back the signal and enable Hank to grasp onto objects instead of knocking them away. The surgery worked. Hank can now push his wheelchair by himself if he wishes.

Because of the brain damage, Hank can't talk properly. However, thanks to the wonders of computer technology, Hank can communicate. Hank uses a keyboard that scrolls through words and when Hank hears a word he wants to say, he hits the keyboard. Through the keyboard, Hank is able to put together complete intelligible sentences. The keyboard has also enabled Hank to show that he is a very intelligent young man.

When you first look at Hank, you might not guess what an interesting character he is. However, once you get to know him, you might a mischievous character. I remember the time he stole some of my ice cream. I was home visiting and I decided to buy some Hagen Dazs ice cream at one of the local supermarkets. I put the ice cream in the fridge and broke it out from time to time to have some. I can't remember if Hank saw me eat some of it but he definitely knew it was there. At the time, my sister Ellie would come over and my Dad occasionally asked her if she would feed Hank. One day she came over while I was home and Dad asked her to feed Hank his lunch. Usually, Hank will have for dessert some cheap ice cream that Dad buys in large five gallon buckets. For some reason, Ellie didn't see Hank's ice cream. She did see the Hagen Dazs. She foolishly asked Hank if the Hagen Dazs was his. Hank looked around (presumably to see if I was there) and then quickly nodded YES! Ellie spooned out some of the ice cream and started serving it to him. As luck would have it, I walked out to the dining room where Ellie was feeding Hank and saw my Hagen Dazs out. I asked what was up. Ellie realized she'd been had. Hank had a big shit eating smile on his face. This was years ago but Hank still remembers and still laughs when I rag on him about stealing some of my ice cream.

This brief blog should give you some idea of what my brother Hank is like. He's a real character though also a wonderful person. He is a prime example of someone who has worked hard to overcome some terrible breaks in life. I plan to write more about him in the future. For now, I hope Bottomless Pit (as far as food is concerned) enjoys him Olive Garden gift card. Happy Belated Birthday Bro!