Jermaine J Williams

My Brother, The Devil, & Me Jermaine J Williams

"How the mighty have fallen," was a phrase I once heard but never quite understood, until that very moment... As I sat solemnly beside my brother's hospital bed, I looked around at the tubes going in and out of his body and at the machines that were keeping him alive. I wondered how we'd gotten to this point. How at one moment we were experiencing our greatest high and now facing what was undoubtedly our lowest, low. I fought to control the millions of emotions running through my mind and to be the strong older brother - but it was pointless. All I could hear were the stern words of my father, reminding me that I was my brother's keeper. It was at that very moment, holding my brother's lifeless hand, I realized I had failed him. I always knew my brother was special. Everything he attempted he excelled in. He was wittier, more outgoing and by far, stronger and more athletic than i had been. Yet, we embraced our positions and always had a mutual love and admiration for one another. He was a modern day Superman. Now, laying motionless, the doctors advised us they had done all they could do. My brother, the invincible one, would be removed from life support. Raised Muslim all my life, I had come to know Christ as my Savior after we moved from Syria to America. I couldn't help but secretly wonder if this was some new convert test; Or worse, Allah showing his disapproval of me. Maybe this was his punishment, for turning my back on the religion, I'd known for so long. Kicked out of my house in high school, estranged from my parents and now responsible for a family of my own, I wondered just how much more trying life could be. But I made a vow: To serve the Lord, following whatever path he would lead me down and to trust that he would never put more on me, than I could bare. I had no idea then, that was only the beginning. Sometimes situations only get better, after they've been at their absolute worst. I would have to learn this lesson the hard way. Hmph. Surely, it couldn't get any worse than watching my brother be removed from life support. Or could it? The Christian in me can't say what I want to but what I will is: Things were about to get REAL! This was only the beginning of the battle with My Brother, The Devil and Me.