Tribute

Lyle had the most bizarre sense of humor and loved making people laugh. While many people have an aptitude for humor and music, my brother had an unusual skill. He always seemed to know when he was needed. Captured like some magic ability it was often me that needed his help. When I was about to have my baby, my husband was gone in the military and I was completely alone. Lyle must have sensed that Katie would soon be born because he chose to fall asleep on the couch one night. At midnight, I was woken with my first labor pain. I woke Lyle and told him. He grabbed my shoes and coat, put them on me, warmed up the car, and drove us to the hospital. We’d had a blizzard and somewhere between 3 and 4 feet of snow had fallen. The nurse said we could walk around and together we walked for 5 hours. We spent that time talking about the baby and how his little boy loved playing with an old doll of mine. He renamed her Katie. Lyle stepped out while Katie was born with the goal of finding a middle name. I stood in the window and watched a maintenance man shovel the sidewalk. The sky looked amber when the phone rang with Lyle yelling Lynn over and over as he’d gotten that far through the alphabet and realized our dad's name was Len. This is one of my fondest memories.

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