Brother Don

This is the first Memorial Day since the passing of my brother Don who died down at Syracuse, NE on 12/21/2019.  He had celebrated his 90th birthday on December 17 of 2019. I was 4, 1/2  years older than Don and remember the day he was born. When the Grandpa Walker came to see him, I met them at the door with the news that "we have a real baby at our house". He and I grew-up together by moving out to the old Vrana farm when he was just past two. We had ponies during the drought and depression days of the 1930's, which helped us get by with our parents good management of scarce resources. He followed me and sister Vivian through Garland HS and worked at the Garland Lime querry where he worked with John O. Jones and rented his farm near Seward where Don's lived. He worked for the USDA Soil Conservation Service as a seasonal worker and built gradiant terraces utill transferring to Papillion, NE and eventually to Syracuse, NE. He also got involved in real estate, insurance and going to Auctioneer School. In 2004 he was honored as the Nebraska Auctioneer of Year.  He married a local girl and have 4 daughters. (A still born daughter was born). They all have families of their own with a family in the upper 30's. Not only was Don and I close throughout his life but also were our families. We didn't get to the cemetery this year with our quarantine but it seemed an appropriate time for me to express my feeling of loss with his passing. There hasn't been a day go by since his passing that I havn't missed him.