I bought him this monster cake for his birthday because I knew it would make him laugh. (He didn’t want his photo on facebook!)

Jimmy is Wendi’s husband and Noah’s father. He was in the Army Reserves for eight years. He was a professional sky diver. He’s a firefighter and a paramedic.

Jimmy spends every day at work helping other people. It’s what his whole professional life is about. He comes in on what will be, for many of them, the worst, or one of the worst, days of their lives. He’s calm, he’s competent, he’s experienced.

He gets some pretty hard calls, as you can imagine. Terrible situations. Crying and chaos. Fire and smoke. Accidents, heart attacks, burns, deaths, blood, diseases, the ravages of people on drugs.

And he helps. He fixes. He solves. He comforts.

He and his family have always been there for me and my family, during good times and very bad times. I know they always will be.

Jimmy makes me laugh. He makes scrumptious food, especially his cinnamon monkey bread, which he brings for Thanksgiving at my house every year. It is our tradition to eat the monkey bread as an appetizer. It is odd, we know this, we do.

My brother is one of the best, most loyal friends of my life.

And that’s why “The Language of Sisters” – there’s a wonderful brother in there! – is for him.

It’s a little thank you for being an outstanding little brother.