My wonderful baby brother (22 months my junior) came through again, no questions asked except, "Where do you want me to send it?" (Four years ago, he was visiting, and seeing the shape of the vehicle I was driving, bought me a Voyager mini-van rather than pay for the repairs to the other one. Bless his heart, that '96 mini-van has over 180,000 miles on it and is still rolling.) He has the funds to help me because he was the lion's share recipient of my mother's estate -- something I accepted because, after all, he stayed there and put up with everything after I abandoned ship in '74 and never returned. 

We weren't encouraged to be close as children. He was Mama's boy and I was Daddy's girl. Mama loved me, no doubt about that. She just found him easier to love. Had Daddy outlived Mama, my brother's financial situation and mine would be reversed. We weren't close as adults until our mother died five years ago. Since then, there's been nothing in the way of our building a good relationship. I always loved him but there was a distance there, not just geographic between FL and TX, but emotional as well -- the result of our particular upbringing. Anyway,  I'm lucky to have him. Outside of our children, he and I are all we have.

I tend to be more optimistic than not, with a healthy dose of pragmatism thrown in. Things don't seem to ever become wonderful, except fleetingly, but they do get better. Thanks to Wayne, I'll stay afloat for awhile longer.