My Brother Leonard Poem by Saiom Shriver

My first memory of my brother was the family picking Mom
and him up at the hospital in April of 1950. One of several
reasons we were part of a large family was that my father
wanted a son. When his fifth daughter was born his brother
telegrammed him in Korea... 'sorry missed again! '. When
Leonard was two years old he decided to run naked down the street
.. I retrieved him. He was sunny, cheerful, charismatic,
smiling at everyone. I would not know til he was an adult
how brilliant he was. His timing with his humor was masterful.
His wit was unique and as fast as lightning. Nor would I realize
when he was little his waterfall of generosity... to all.. thousands of
acts of giving... but especially to those
in pain or poor. It was always anonymous. He seldom had a 5 digit
balance in the bank.

When he was nine and on his bicycle
he was hit by a 16 wheeled truck. I can remember our father
in agony running down the long driveway to the street. Leonard
was not expected in the first few hours
to live. After surgery, he wore a helmet to cover
the metal plate in his head and was unable to walk.
It was his incredible will that he
regained the ability. The metal plate was not replaced
with more merciful alloys. It baked his head in summer
and froze it in winter. He was never again without physical pain.
It would make him less patient than the average person.
In later years he told his sister that because he was in his eyes after the
accident 'a freak' he began to develop his sense of humor.
He would go on to have two serious motorbike accidents and to encounter
black ice driving a tanker, a condition which overturned
the truck. He was a peacemaker who
could walk into a violent bar scene and calm people down. Bev told us that
her mother in law was in the hospital the day of their
wedding, and that L stayed with his aunt rather than go to the
reception. Jesus and the
message of the Gospel to 'love your neighbor as yourself'
were imprinted on his heart, which included everyone. My mother
asked my sister if she should buy him a new coat for winter.
She was told he'd only give it away. And so he did, to the first
homeless man who needed one. He was a good listener to those in pain.
He had an amazing memory and focus
He could keep a secret forever.

Some of the many things he said to me:

'You drive so slowly the bugs in the park are on your rear windshield'
*
'Don't think you have to be a chatty kathy doll and dump your entire tape
load when someone pulls your string'
*
(After putting a picture of a guru
on the stove) 'Om on the range'.
*
When he was healthy he said the video
of his last will would start 'I'm dead now'.

His first wife Margaret was a wonderful hardworking reliable nurse, a beautifier of every place in which she's lived or worked. They had a daughter, Sarah. When she was nineteen, his daughter died in a car crash. For several years after that he wanted to check out. He told his sister S that every day he peered into the abyss until one day God pulled him back.
Then he was fortunate enough to marry Allison, who gave him a reason to stay on earth. They lived simply. Neither has ever held onto things they don't need. Allison whose nurturing achieved a 23 year life span for her cat Yak made him a fellow cat person
Every year on his birthday he gave flowers to his mother since she had done all the work.
His sister S remembered that he would park his truck out front and come in to take her toddler daughter for a ride in it.

My brother never served in the military because of his injuries. He often spoke against the military policies of later presidents.
At the funeral home a scarred Vietnam veteran came up to the coffin
and put what seemed to be a piece of cloth into the coffin.
Then the vet approached my surviving brother and said 'I gave him my purple heart. He fought for everyone.'

He had grown up with a father who was the first in our city to sue the local authorities over the beating of black men in custody.
Because of that lawsuit he was disbarred on a trumped up charge,
losing his ivy league law degree. L continued his parents' work of opposing racism.

In 1956 the Japanese encephalitis compulsory shot given to US military including our father in Korea would
develop as it had in many others into Parkinson's disease. He was bedridden for many years. Our mother would for 20 years get up at 5 am.. take care of her husband and children,
teach school all day, and then come home to work til 11pm. When our father died Leonard was so moved by those who had taken the time to come and pay their respects that after that he rarely missed a funeral of any one he knew.

Leonard supported his giving by starting a business imprinting corporate, school, and other logos on cups, t shirts, pens etc.

He wasn't perfect. Who is? But my surviving brother D said in his eulogy, 'If you were Leonard's friend,
he had your back.' and he recounted what Leonard told a teen: 'The body is only a car. We're here to make life better for others... to give them rides.'