My brother, Kurt, died on Sept. 1, and his memorial was held recently at an art gallery in Cumberland. Kurt lived in Frostburg for the last seven years.
I had never been to the area until I found myself sitting with him at the hospital. We grew up in New Jersey, and I could not understand why he chose a place so far from the ocean. Then one by one each of his friends came in the room to sit with him, and I realized Kurt had found his home.
My brother and I share a painful childhood history that has always made finding a home a difficult prospect. But Kurt lived in a world where people are generous of heart.
While I have found good people most places, I have never found so many in one region.
Part of me felt like an outsider, as these folks knew my brother much more deeply as an adult than I ever would and yet they taught me about him through their love.
There I sat as Kurt’s little sister, experiencing what he must have felt seven years ago when he moved to Frostburg. A sense of awe and fear. A world completely different from the one we knew as children.
There were probably many mornings when Kurt woke up thinking it was all a dream.
Each person who entered that hospital room embraced me. Each person we visited or who came to the memorial embraced me and my son, Sam.
Kurt lived in a world of artists and cyclists. People who challenge themselves and the world to be better with a gentle peace and not angry tones. So many unique voices who inspired me to want more in this life.
I have always been the fighter with the loud voice trying to get others to change. Acceptance has never been my strong suit.
Yet I now feel like I have a chance to live a more meaningful and peaceful life because of being touched by those who call the Frostburg area their home.
As we were driving back home to Philadelphia, Sam turned to me and asked when we would be moving to Frostburg.
Lee Detwiler
Jenkintown, Pa.
Opinion
Her brother found a home here, and now she understands why
- Opinion
-
-
‘Forgotten warrior’ not forgotten
The Korean War is often called “The Forgotten War.” My generation remembers the Battle for LZ X-Ray at Ia Drang, The Tet Offensive, and Khe Sahn of the Vietnam War.
-
Organization needed to help utilize the Potomac River
I am a committee remember on the Tamiami Trail Scenic Highway which stretches from Palmetto to Venice, Fla.
-
Reducing meat consumption can help ease climate change
A review of 12,000 papers on climate change, in the May 15 issue of “Environmental Research Letters,” found that 97 percent of scientists attribute climate change to human activities.
-
It’s good to be the queens
One of the many nuggets of knowledge that Crash Davis tried to bestow upon Nuke LaLoosh in the movie Bull Durham was that ‘strikeouts are boring. Besides that, they’re fascist.’
-
Harper just needs to stop scoring the wall
• Happy birthday, Brooks Robinson. No. 5 will be 76 tomorrow.
Remember, in the words of Gordon Beard, “Brooks Robinson never asked anybody to name a candy bar after him. In Baltimore people name their children after him.” -
Maryland has stopped being “The Free State”
I am a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans and, last but not least, the National Rifle Association. I am a yearly member of the American Legion.
-
Outrageous
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
This amounts to spying on an American news organization — common practice in dictatorships but scary conduct in a democratic system that prizes the public value of an independent watchdog press. -
Save the Bridge Program
Please do not close the Frostburg United Methodist Church Bridge Program. The community and many families need this program. Let me enlighten you about a few things.
-
Town of Westernport needs a police force and a curfew
Since the consolidation of Bruce and Valley high schools the town of Westernport rapidly deteriorated from what was once a quite respectable community to a community in a decline in residents, and along with that came a collapse in local government due to lack of knowledge and bad decisions that set the town of Westernport back 60 years.
One bad decision was to give up their police force, and with no constant visual law enforcement it has created an open range for drug dealerss, addicts, thieves, drunks and speeding vehicles that choose to ignore our city laws and speed limits and have totally disregard for the safety of the citizens who are on the streets, especially the children who are like deer, you don’t see them until their in front of you. -
Financial gutting will damage school system
I am writing in response to the Allegany County Commissioners’ efforts to cut local education spending to the lowest possible level allowed under state law.
- More Opinion Headlines
-
‘Forgotten warrior’ not forgotten
