A Tribute to My Darling Brother, Who is Missed More and More as the
years go by.
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Irving loved Chinese food and
Italian food. He enjoyed playing backgammon and competing in a
backgammon club on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn, NY.
He attended Fordham Prep and Brooklyn College. Before he passed
away, he was one year away from graduating with an accounting
degree, which he planned to use to support himself through law
school. Everyone called him "The Walking Dictionary" because he was
so intelligent. He always had the right answers to everybody's
questions and was continuously curious, studious and ambitious.
Irv became ill with leukemia in April, 1972 and was constantly in
and out of the hospital. What was remarkable was that he forced
himself to keep his normal body weight right up until he passed
away. He would try to eat as much as possible to make up for the
weight losses of the chemotherapy treatments he underwent one week
of every month. The last time he was in the hospital, people who
passed by his room kept commenting on what a healthy-looking boy
like him was doing in the hospital. They didn’t know and we didn’t
say.
A few weeks before he passed away, he said goodbye to our favorite
aunt during a family picnic at our local beach and picnic area. She
always remembered how he meant that and not to tell anyone else. He
was so concerned with not hurting us by leaving us, rather than the
fact that his young life was almost over. My darling, sweet, loving
brother passed away on September 20, 1977.
Irvie had left instructions to be cremated and we brought his ashes
to Anthony Wayne Park in New York and scattered them there. That was
the inspiration for the poem I wrote for him. There actually was a
deer nearby where we were.
My Brother’s Forest
As I rushed along a secluded forest path,
the sudden snap of a severed twig,
similar to my shattered heart,
exploded the deafening silence.
It scared a nearby deer who bolted
as she joyfully kidnapped my brother’s spirit,
whose ashes had barely touched the forest floor.
That was the moment that I realized...
He was finally at peace.
© S. J. K.
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The Stages of Irvie's Life
Baby Irv
High School Grad
Thanksgiving Day
Irv with Puppies |
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We hope Irvie rests in peace.
We love you, Irv. Always have, always will,
just like Dad always said.
May God always hold you in his arms and may you always be peaceful
and happy wherever you may be.
Love,
Stephanie
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