Thoughts from Chelsea

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2

Bo Bo Richard Applegate

I remember when I would write these blogs when a friend died. Or a grandmother..those are people who are very very important to us; to some people more important than others. But I now know their pain.

Joseph Richard Applegate. Bo Bo. Hobo Joe. Jojo. My oldest brother. A friend. A son. Left this earth saturday night. My brother is one of those people who you feel like would pull something like this to just mess with you. If I hadn't seen him myself in the hospital and felt his hands all puffy and swollen. I would not believe it myself. The last time I saw Bo was when I was saying goodbye to head off to college, the first time I said bye to him he didn't hug me cause that is the way we were. My mom use to say that we were oil and water. But we invited them to Applebee's before I left and of course Bo was there. Fat kid. We hugged before I left the second time. Then on the 15th I called him for his birthday, and, me being a college kid I had no idea it was 11:15 at night and Bo had gone to bed but he answered thank goodness! He was very angry though. I told him I loved him and happy birthday. He said "Love you." And then promptly hung up.

My brother was not a man of very many words. He was my father in a younger version. Joe loved to work. Sometimes he was kind of scary to work with; he gets frustrated, but he was happy to have help when he worked. Bo loved to board. Longboarding was his past time. He got so many concussions on that thing. I remember one time he built a jump for the kids in the neighborhood, but of course joe had to use it. He was in the hospital that night with a huge concussion. Also his wife and I would go with a bunch of friends and just cruise around at night. Those were always so nice and relaxing. Snowboarding was my thing with bo. He was addicted. He would think of any excuse to get up on the mountain and my dad loved being with both of us, so he would take Bo quite often and he couldn't have been happier. We would get on the lift and he would sing, loudly! for the whole mountain to hear. We talked about things on the lift. He was always happy when we were snowboarding. He never washed his hair before we went so he would have to take off his helmet and scratch his head cause his hair was so disgusting. ha! It was really good stuff.

There are so many memories that we have with Bo. It is another thing to be close to losing someone cause Joe had done that as well. But to actually lose them. It's a very surreal thing. Something that I would never want anyone to go through. I love my brother, and I will the rest of my life. He is in a better place, and that gives people some comfort, but people are selfish and we think of ourselves and we are stuck here. Without him. That is the part that freaking sucks. I know that Bo and I will be united again. I have never doubted that.

I know I may be biased saying this but, my family is a family who CAN do this. I have never seen us all pull together like this. Now don't get me wrong life sucks for us right now and we have our moments when we just fall apart. But we have more moments of Joe happiness.

I love my brother. I will miss him more than people can imagine.

But life isn't what you imagine it would be I guess. There are people around you that are dying to help. Just look around for the good in life. It is there. I promise.

My brother would find it. I know that he is happy where he is. That is the biggest plus in this whole situation..

I love you Bo Bo. Keep up the monkey dance. We'll join you soon. You silly boy.