Today's Real News Comes in the Sentinel 200415

The Sentinel All the news that's fit to print and some that's not.
My Brothers This reporter does not usually use full names for a good reason, but here I make an exception. I had two brothers, Rob and Tom, all of us with the same last name. I mentioned Rob earlier. He was the youngest and succumbed to cancer far too early in life. By the way, he never smoked. It just goes to show it's not always smoking that gives you cancer. Tom and I both have smoked for decades and are still here. I got to see Tom last summer and he has barely changed his looks since I saw him last in the mid-nineties, while I look more like a near corpse than my true age. I was much older than Rob and was gone into the navy for much of his growing years. He grew into a handsome man and did quite well with the ladies until he met the right woman and settled down. They were both good for each other. She is still doing well, but I do not want to mention her name, respecting her privacy. Rob had five children and they are doing well, so he must have done things right by them. Tom and I both had one child and they are well, though they are hardly children there days. Mine is 50 years old now and takes care to help out her old dad when necessary and makes me proud of her. Tom's daughter does the same for him. We are both lucky men.	Writing a Book I think most people believe they have a story to tell and think they could write a book about that story. The key word is think. It turns out that writing a book is not easy at all. It requires tremendous amounts of time and effort. This reporter found that out the hard way. I did publish several on Amazon's E-books site. They did okay for a while but faded and I unpublished them. To write a good book one must have a really good story, a good editor and good promotion. All of those things come at a price. This reporter had a good idea for a book for nearly 30 years now, but never got much beyond the title. It was to be called "Why you want to move to the country and why you shouldn't". I will give you a synopsis in short order. People want to move to the country because it sounds so nice and peaceful and it is so pretty to be out of town with a plot of ground to call your own. That is more of a fantasy than a truth. I did it and it was not all peaches and creme. It's like the fantasy of the old west and cowboys. Reality is so much different than the image is. In the country you still have neighbors like in the city. Some are wonderful and some you cannot stand. Commuting to work is much longer from the country than the city. Police protection is slow to nil. I and all of my neighbors were always armed. We have lived in cities for 50 of our 75 years and were never burglarized, but in the country we were burgled with a week of moving there. In the country if you weren't born there you are never accepted. In the city no one cares where you came from. The list goes on, but I think you have enough to quell the urge to move out of town.	Memory Corner With this current pandemic I realize many families will lose loved ones . Those who lose a family member to this virus will suffer greatly. That in mind I remember the loss of my grandfather and being at the funeral home the last morning. My father, uncle Kenny, brother Tom, cousin Bill, family friend Tim and me carried that casket out to the hearse and loaded it into the vehicle. So far that was the saddest day of my life. The memory never goes away. I was weak at the knees and could barely walk. We got into Tom's car to follow in the funeral procession. I had never seen any of those men cry until the day and never after that. If the current body count continues skyward the funerals may have to be postponed indefinitely, causing an even greater wound to the hearts of those left behind. This reporter and his bride have decided to be cremated so as not to take up space in a cemetery that should be land for parks for children to play in and have fun.