Devin – Happy Birthday Bro
Today my younger brother would have been celebrating 25 years of age. This is a bitter sweet post that is more personal than for anyone else. If anyone read my previous post on “What is Freedom?” they would know that our family lost one of our siblings while he defended our Country’s freedoms in Iraq.
If you knew Devin, you would know that he was one of the best dudes around and that this is not the best photo. On valentines day one year, Devin did not have a date so he went to one of the local stores (by himself) and stood out front with his guitar and told every hot (and not so hot) girls that he would sing them a song and “be their valentine” for a kiss. He got over 20 kisses that night.
Devin loved to make people laugh. He had a deep almost surreal love for his kin. He would brag on his brothers to anyone.
Devin loved to hear a crowd cheer. He pretended from the time he could walk that people would cheer for him. He mastered the art of imitating the sound. Haaaaarrrrrr! [breath] Haaaaarrrrrr!
He would always make the sound when he scored a touchdown, played hoops, played lacrosse or even played video games, listening to Weezer or heck maybe when he was with his girlfriends. That wish came true at his funeral There were hundreds and hundreds of people (maybe thousands) at the funeral, the procession was 15 miles long with over 350 cars and at least 50 motorcylcles. The cheer was great.
Since that day almost four years ago there have been a lot more cheers that have come from the Memorial Day ceremonies, the Ohio Western Reserve Cemetary ceremonies, Veteran’s Day presentations, The PFC Devin J Grella Army Reserve Building being named in his honor, The two, three or four Washington DC memorials, the faces of the fallen memorial, the dinner with President Bush to the countless tattoos bearing his name (including mine). There is going to be a Hometown Heroe Memorial coming to Medina soon. This cheer is for you on your birthday…Haaaaarrrrrr!
Thanks for the laughs and memories. Love you.
Facebook comments:
July 20th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
hhhhhhaaaaaaah -breath- hhhhhhhhhaaaaaaah. darrin, your hilarious. the funniest story that he told me about playing football by himself in the backyard was that one time he said that he let himself lose. he got stopped on the goal line with inches to go. of course, the other team’s (imaginary) fans were cheering just as loud. hhhhhhhaaaaaahh.