Brothers Love

Right after Bodie was born this summer, I was looking at a magazine and it was advertising art work. I saw this picture and the name of the picture was "Brotherly Love" by Michael Bedard. I thought how neat, the older brother helping the little brother through the freezing river. I got teary eyed just thinking about it. I did just have a baby after all. Emotions run high.

Then a few days later I finally finished the magazine and on the back was this painting again, with a little explanation. As I was reading, I began to cry. I can blame it on hormones still.

But I love it even more now that I know the "story" behind it. Here it is...

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James Kirkwood, an eleven-year-old convert from Scotland, struggled across the frozen prairie with his widowed mother and brothers. While his mother attended her crippled son and the handcart, James was responsible for his four-year-old brother, Joseph. A snowstorm with icy winds strung out the caravan of beleaguered saints. James saw little Joseph collapse, cold and exhausted. In an act of brotherly love, James carried Joseph through rivers of ice, mud, and snow.

Ascending the last miles up Rocky Ridge with little Joseph on his back, James arrived late at Rock Creek camp. Here, James Kirkwood succumbed to the extreme exposure of the day and breathed his last for the love of his little brother. He was buried in a common grave with thirteen others who perished that night. Little Joseph eventually made it into the Salt Lake Valley and went on to become a beloved Mormon Bishop of a large and grateful Salt Lake ward.

~

I kept thinking about it and wanted to hurry and buy a print to hang in my house or in the boys bedroom. But it is only offered in a large pre-framed print for quite a high price. So maybe one day it will be offered differently. And it's also called "Brothers Keeper". For now, I guess I can just rip the page out of the magazine and tape it up?

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I just love this. Not the death of the older brother, but showing the pure love of "brothers". I have 3 sons (all brothers of course to each other). So it just really makes me feel of them and the love they will have for each other their whole lives. As parents we know we would and will do anything for our children. And this... brothers too.

It is so adoring to see this painting. I just love it and thought I'd share.