This weekend Nelson’s cousin Luke invited us to come to his home for the weekend. As we drove the 80 miles there, Nelson asked me to read aloud an email we’d received yesterday. It was written by Kim, who is married to Luke’s brother Andrew…another cousin of Nelson.

Kim said she was representing Andrew with her words, since he couldn’t put his feelings for Nelson into writing. The result is a tribute to the friendship these two cousins have. It’s love in black and white. Nelson and Ann Sophie had read Kim’s email earlier in the day, but as we drove along the highway, Nelson asked me to read it again, out loud. “It was just so good,” he said.

So here it is, written by Andrew’s wife Kim:

I don’t really know Nelson, but I know Nelson-stories and know that if you don’t have a Nelson story, you probably want one. I have had the split-spray from Andrew’s laugh hit me in the face as he recalls the time he and Nelson got stopped by the police late one night in Hawaii.

I have seen cousins cuddled in their beds listening to Luke tell a “Nel and Dod tale,” and I’ve heard Nelson himself recount memories that make you wish they were yours. Like all good story owners, he is easy to listen to.

Andrew loves Nelson. Many times he has told me (sometimes even with a little excitement) that if things ever go south, Nelson is the one he wants to be with. He tells me Nelson has street smarts, common sense, rationality, capability, and then he says, jokingly, “You know, like me.”

This was intriguing to me. Andrew is the most capable person I know. In my eyes he can do anything. I remember once when we were newly married, I tried to hem a pair of curtains that did indeed go south. Andrew replaced the fabric and hemmed them himself. Is he really telling me there is an Andrew 2.0, or did I marry Nelson 2.0?

Once I sized Nelson up at the beach. Andrew and I were getting ready for a bonfire, and Nelson and Ann Sophie were with us. Usually when I get to the beach with company, we grab our chairs and take a seat. Andrew then hauls the wood down, digs the pit, gathers brush, and starts the fire.

This time, as Andrew was bringing the wood down, Nelson immediately began to dig the pit. Once he finished that, he went and hunted sticks for kindling. Then he went back and helped Andrew carry more wood. He didn’t sit down once. Like Andrew, he was a doer.

While he was doing all this, I was telling Ann Sophie, “Listen. If the world ends, Andrew already told me he’s going to find Nelson and the two of them are going to save the world.” I told her that any time I compliment Andrew, he replies, “But have you met Nelson?”

(….conclusion tomorrow)

“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17)