The Pirate King

For some reason today my thoughts are on my brother, Ross, about whom I've written before. When you lose someone close, strangely you eventually move on and think your mourning is over, but I've come to learn that is not so. Every so often, when dusting the family picture (yesterday) or preparing to go skating (this morning) or seeing a 55 mph speed sign, I think of Ross.

Here he is many years ago with his first skating partner, Sherry. I loved this picture as it hung on our living room wall in my childhood home, and when Ross died I went looking for it so that I might have a copy. I scanned it in, enhanced the colour, cleaned it up a bit and Presto! (another Ross line) I have my memory chip.

Ross loved to go fast, driving, skating, talking, laughing--it was all fast. He once played that song "I can't drive 55!" for us on one of our trips, and ever after the line became part of our shared memories.

In one of our family musicals, The Sound of Music, Ross played Max and Presto! Change-0! became his hallmark from that show. I guess it was the gusto he showed in the role. And, of course, in Pirates of Penzance, he was the pirate king. His strong, athletic fighting, his sure singing of the song "I am the pirate King" made him really a king and he is still so in my heart.