Uncle Les (14 minutes)

My Other Brother

It's not often that you get to add to your family, but I have been blessed to add both a sister and a brother to mine!  Back in '95, my brother Aaron became best friends with Aaron.  They would delight in getting together to play the Star Wars CCG, spewing Star Wars trivia ad infinitum, and doing whatever wholesome teenage guys do when they're together.  One afternoon when Mom and I went to pick up my Aaron from the Williams' house, I met Aaron's sister, Choi.  It turned out that we both loved cats and that we both had limited patience for our Aarons' obsession with Star Wars.  And voila!  A sisterhood was born.

Over time, our families melded... to the point where Choi and Aaron's parents became Aaron's and my M2 and D2.  I could always talk with Choi about anything, and "her" Aaron quickly became my "other brother" - always ready with a tease or a hug, a serious conversation or silly plotting.  His brotherliness is what I will always cherish... and miss.

One of the woman in our Bible Study group gave me a remembrance of Aaron written by her elementary-age son. Aaron spent some time with the three Hocher boys at our last camp out. He made quite an impression with John it seems. I'll scan it in later, but in case the pencil and notebook paper doesn't show up well, here is the text...

Aaron was a very tall and strong man. I still remember when he showed my brothers how to chop wood. The wood got stuck on the ax. He brought it up in the air and smashed it on the ground. It split into two pieces. It was totally wicked! -By John Hocher

Small Group Christmas party this year

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but haven't remembered to, this was one of those days where he was having a good day. And he was being his mischevious self. We had a white elephant exchange, and Tara really wanted this heated coffee mug she had opened, but someone had stolen from her..



Well, Sam came up with a plan for how to get it for her. First Tara would steal his present, and then he would steal the mug back for Tara.





And he made a big deal about going over and stealing it. I mean a big deal. We all about fell out of our chairs laughing, and he was so proud of it.

I swear it was the best night we'd had in a long time.

Unlce Sam with his nephews

While he may not have been related to me by blood, Aaron was still family to me.

He was so disappointed he wasn't able to come and see the boys in the hospital when they were born because of his relapse at that time, so we came right after we were released and came to see him. As you can see, it made him very happy.

Stand up and fight!

I just found this picture amongst some other pictures to be put in a baby book, and knew it had to be shared. One of the boys greatest joys was sword-fighting with Sam. They loved when Uncle Sam would come over and they could fight him all they wanted. He did a pretty good job of losing very convincingly.