Men Who Serve
Let me be very clear about something. I don't give a good God damn if Joe Biden hid his physical decline. I don't Don't think anyone can prove a mental decline because he, at his worst, is sharper than orange mc fuck face.
There are two kinds of men. Those who serve themselves, and those who serve others. Men who serve others hide their wounds and their weaknesses. They do it because there are people to serve. I'm saying this because I've done it most of my life. I know a lot of guys who did it.
Brum Day was one of Daddy's best friends. Brum followed Daddy as the number one at the Alpha Upsilon chapter of KA at Ole Miss. Brum didn't marry because he loved a woman who was already married. When she divorced, she wouldn't marry him because she was raising the children from her first marriage. That's a story you don't get to know about.
When I was a child, Santa Claus would come to our house driving a red sports car. Somewhere, I have a photo of my sister eating a pickle and sitting on Brum's lap while he was disguised as Santa.
Bob Hearin was looking at three young men to run First National Bank. His first choice died in the United Kingdom in a tragic wreck. His last two choices were Brum and Daddy. Daddy said he couldn't leave his father's business, but that Brum was the better choice anyway. Mr Hearin agreed, and Brum became CEO of Trustmark.
Despite being a bachelor, Brum became very active in civic affairs and wrote many checks. He was particularly interested in state-sponsored higher education in Mississippi. Daddy and Rowan both tried to win him over to Millsaps, but it wasn't part of his vision, and he and George Harmon famously butted heads several times.
Lou Gehrig's disease is supposed to be this rare phenomenon, but in one five-year period, both one of my mother's best friends and one of my father's best friends were diagnosed with it. Leon Lewis had to live with both his wife and his best friend dying of the same thing at the same time.
Daddy had already died. Rowan Taylor and JO Manning came to Momma's condo with the news about Brum's health. With Daddy's death and Lance's heart attack, this was difficult news for me. Having dinner with Robert Wingate at Nick's, he asked a very logical question, "How are you ever gonna get Brum to step down?"
As long as he could, Brum hid his symptoms from the board and his coworkers. The last time I saw him alive was at the grand opening of the Castlewoods Trustmark, which had been a double wide trailer, but now was one of the prettiest branches they had.
Brum had to have a driver. Going into the party, I noticed he struggled with the strength to keep his jaw closed. Not long after, he formally stepped down. Not long after that, he died, but not before marrying the woman who wouldn't marry him so long ago. Now there are statues of him celebrating the scholarship funds he set up.
Men who serve lie about their health so they can continue to serve. It's not a scandal. It's not a weakness. It's a realistic way of dealing with the fact that you don't know who will do your job when you can't.
Joe Biden will die having survived his son, which no one should ever do. He served his country as long as he could, and he served it more than he served himself. Keep that in mind the next time you see a president taking four hundred million dollars bribes from some of the people who did nine-eleven.
