He was the best brother anyone ever had. Period."
But as I took my seat, I watched the long faces staring out of the windows, wanting to be anywhere else, and I knew that's exactly what would happen. I realized no one would likely remember more than the cover jacket of Ben's life. Just another name and a photo in a family album, and when the photos had faded, all trace of him would disappear. The thought horrified me, but I realized that I was the one who could fill in the pages, put the stories into words for anyone to see and relive. Without that, he would be gone, a young victim of memory's decay. It was then and there that the idea for this book was born.
We had come to a crossroads in our lives, one which saw the surviving members of our family choose widely different paths. Ben's eighteen years, as I knew them, and my life, as I know it, became inextricably linked on that day, and the result is the collection of stories you are now reading.
I pulled the sheet off the billiard table and stared at the green, cloth covered slate, and then moved to the side and ran my fingers over the letters carved in relief in the dark mahogany--"BENDIGO--IF NOT FOR YOU". The table, which was the catalyst that had sparked Ben's interest in building the meetinghouse, was itself a memorial to his zeal and perseverance. Even though he was taught the basics of the game by one of our neighbors, I still felt saddened that very few were the hours he was allotted to relax over the fruits of his labors. He deserved those hours, and he deserved the years that followed without him.
I pulled up a chair to the table and rested my feet along its rails, as I remembered Ben doing the first day it was delivered. Tired, satisfied, finished at last, he paused for a well-earned break between projects, with neither of us suspecting it would be his last. Almost everyone Bendigo Joules met made an impression on him, whether neighbor, fellow student, politician, businessman or professional, and he seldom failed to glean a measure of goodness from that meeting. In return, he touched many lives, passing on to those individuals equal measures of laughter, hope, encouragement, love, loyalty and a brand of wisdom untainted by the cynicism of long life.
Nothing can bring back a life cut short, but perhaps through remembering we can honor and celebrate the fullness of that life. It is my earnest hope that through the following stories you will come to know and love the brother I knew for sixteen years as Bendigo.
***
Bendigo Joules was a complex boy of simple pleasures, and a shy young man with a big smile, a big heart, and a big love of life. And canoes. And old people, football, girls, pranks, one cat...
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