When my brother was younger he had a really bad temper and got into many fights with me, my dad, my mom, and with classmates in school. Once he graduated high school, he ended up in jail a couple of times for his behavior towards both of our parents. Even then he was a bully and pushed people around and used all sorts of language that was uncalled for towards myself, and our parents. My brother is the type of individual that, if he does not get his way he gets upset and starts being physically and verbally abusive towards anyone that wouldn’t let him have his way, in this case it was our parents. Before, I used to allow my brother to push me, slap me, and hit me because he was older. But not on this day.

On a warm, Spring day, When I was about 14 years old, a year after my grandmother passed away, my older brother who was 21 years old, and his girlfriend, came over for a visit while my dad was at work. My brother and I got into an argument and instead of getting in his face, I walked away and went outside to calm down some. While I was still outside, I could hear my brother raising his voice and cursing at our mother. I am very protective of my mother when anyone tries to talk to her like this or tries to be physically abusive to her. With this going through my mind something in me snapped.

Gone was my old self on this day when I got tired of my brother treating our mom like this and cursing at her and being verbally abusive towards her. I began walking back towards our house where my brother was being verbally abusive to our mother since I could hear everything he was saying because he was raising his voice. As I approached our front porch, my dad had left a shovel beside the house, I took the shovel and marched back to our front porch where my brother and his girlfriend were.

My brother was in our mother’s face raising his voice and verbally abusing her as our mother kept asking him politely to leave but he wanted to have the last word and continued verbally abusing our mom. Shovel in hand, I walked on the porch and got in my brothers face and told him “either you leave like mom said or I will not hesitate to beat your brains out with this shovel.” The look on his face was very pleasing, he had the look of surprise on his face that I actually had the guts to stand up to him and threaten him. Had he not left after this, then I would not have hesitated to do it if it meant protecting mom from him being physically abusive.

Later that night when our dad came home from work, the phone rang and it was my brother telling my dad what I had told him about me not hesitating to beat his brains out if he didn’t leave. My dad asked me “did you threaten to beat your brothers brains out with a shovel?” I said “Yes, I sure did.” My dad told my brother “you don’t come over here and act that way with your mother.”

My mother raised me and my brother the best way she could and the way my brother was acting on this day towards my mom with using all the foul language, was uncalled for and no mother or father deserves to have their child talk to them like this or treated the way my brother treated our mom.