"There are no photos of my brother Paul. No one recalls what he looked like or what type of personality he had. He wasn't here long enough to create those kinds of memories for us. However, his short life and tragic death were indelibly seared on our mother's heart. She tried to conceal the pain she felt from losing him, while also keeping the truth about his tragic and unnecessary death - actually, I would call it manslaughter - hidden for decades."
"My only living sibling was my sister, our parents' first born, who was 14 years older than me. She married and started her own family when I was young, leaving me to often ponder what life would be like if I'd had one or both of our brothers to grow up with. During those years, Paul's death remained shrouded in mystery. I didn't ask any questions about what happened and I didn't learn any new information about him until I was in high school."
Paul died within seven hours of birth after inhaling a large quantity of "birth fluids" that congested his lungs. The family narrative presented the death as an atypical childbirth injury, while the mother concealed both her grief and the belief that the death was unnecessary or manslaughter for decades. The narrator grew up without photographs or memories of Paul and learned little about him. An older brother Johnny also died in early childhood from a respiratory infection. The narrator only learned additional details in high school after the mother revealed a gruesome account of Paul's delivery and death.
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