My Big Bro

Every time I talk to my brother, he tells me about some current conflict between him and the wife.  I don't know how to respond sometimes.  He’s not happy, and hasn’t been for a long time.  His anti-depressant has become an anti-laughter drug.  I think he’s not himself these days and I miss family meals with his joking and laughter!  I can’t tell him to get off the drug, my instinct is that he was in a dangerous place and then a high school friend committed suicide and I think it sent ripples through him, though all of us.  And it is possible that without it he is too near that edge, and I don’t want that.  He’s an amazing talent, I could not even consider his loss.  I love him fiercely, but I’m sad to see where things are for him.  I asked him about leaving, he said there are problems in any marriage.  He’s doing what he believes to be the right thing by staying.  And they each have their roles.  She administers every detail of the calendar and he shows up where he’s told to go.  And I just wonder when it’s going to be his turn to have a little happiness.  I love my sister-in-law, but I don’t think she’s good for him.  She treats him like he’s misbehaving.  His kids follow her lead.  They are cool kids, he tells me so.  But they seem like they’ve been molded into something that feels constrictive from my vantage point,  yet they get the freedom to be disrespectful.  I do hope that one of these days things settle in a more pleasant place.  I love my brother.