My Brother Was Killed in Afghanistan. He Became Real to Me Again in Quarantine
Four weeks after my brother Ben’s funeral in 2009, the Army returned his belongings in carefully packed boxes, some still caked in sand and dust. In one was a black velvet bag with a black ribbon that contained the items he’d held in his pockets that day: an Altoid box that I had decorated and filled with family photos, and a poem by Brian Andreas that was read at our brother Sam’s wedding.