Blog 3818 – 05.06.2026

My Brother’s Birthday 

On this day seventy-three years ago I became a brother. I was less than eighteen months into this adventure myself when he arrived, but I am sure that I loved him the first moment that I saw him. Like most young brothers so close in age we had our squabbles and disputes, but we always had each other’s backs. And we knew too much on each other to tattle to our parents lest all our boyhood transgressions be revealed. We understood the policy of mutual destruction long before we knew it was a world wide nuclear deterrent posture.

On this day wherever I might have been in the wide world my thoughts always returned to the boyhood days that I spent with my brother Robert. We had few toys to play with, yet we had each other. For a couple of summer breaks during our elementary school days we had no other playmates, but each other. It often felt like the two of us against the world.

My brother once wrote to me in a birthday card, “All I ever wanted was for you to be happy.” We share that sentiment. My brother taught me how to be a brother, the most important role I have ever played and success in all the other roles depends on getting this one right.

A big thank you and happy birthday, to my beloved brother, Robert Wayne White.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White