My Mom's Marine

The room was full of chatter. There were two or three conversations going on at the same time. I was staring at the TV, not really watching it, just staring at it. I was so tired and depressed at this point, I just stared off most of the time. I looked as if I was watching TV or listening to someone but I really wasn't paying much attention to anything or anyone but Mom.

The nurse came in the room and started checking her vitals. I looked over at Mom and while intently looking at my older brother, Tim , in the doorway, She told the nurse,"That's my Marine over there" "Pardon me Margaret" The nurse said. "That's my son the Marine over there. "Ain't he something". And for about a half an hour or so, as everyone trickled out of the room. she told the nurse and I about her oldest son's birth, his first tooth, and when he started walking.

When my twin sisters were born, she told us about how he went up to my Grandfather Kelsey and said " I got 2 babies not 1 but 2 see" as he held 3 fingers up. When Debby and I came along, she said how Tim would help her take care of us when she was sick or had to work, "he was my little helper".

After high school, Tim went on to attend Ft. Wayne Bible College for a year and then joined the Marine Corps. The day he left for boot camp, I watched as the car got further and further down the road until I could no longer see it. I went up stairs, laid face up on my bed and started throwing a baseball we once threw together,up and down. I am not sure what I was thinking at that moment, but it may have been memories of him and my sisters walking hand in hand, watching him play sports growing up or following behind him while coon hunting, trying desperately to keep up. Perhaps I was thinking of when I was working with him and my father, how grown up he made me feel. Whatever it was, I cried my eyes out. My big brother had left and he was never going to live with us again.

When he returned home from boot camp, he asked our mom if he could keep me home from school that day to ride around with his recruiter. Imagine how that would make an 11 year old boy feel. I had a blast. I talked about it for weeks amongst my friends. He taught me how to ride a bike , how to fish, how to build a fire, led me to be a follower of Jesus Christ and along with my father, how to be a man of integrity.

Our Mom past away on March 17th, 2003 and Tim led his family threw the process of the funeral and burial. More than a brother, he is my friend.

Timothy Wayne Rarden was born December 16th, 1956 ,served 4 years in the Marine Corps and resides with his wife Becky in Carlisle Oh.