Joseph Joe William Sims, Jr.

MY BROTHER JODIE (By Dionakaye Sims) 12/19/2020 GROWING UP WITH JODIE Jodie was always nine years older than me at the most or eight years at the least. In truth, I didn't really 'grow up' with Jodie because he was too old to play or do things with. But things changed as I became an adult, and by way of circumstance and situation. YOUNG JODIE For as long as I can remember, Jodie always wore glasses. In his youth, and looking at old pictures, he wore 'coke bottle' glasses, which always reminded me of a television program character on 'Little Rascals.' Our father's hobby was to take and develop his own black and white photographs, and one of those mugshots pictured us lined up alongside a neighborhood fence when we lived on Tuolumne Blvd. in Modesto. As I vaguely recall, most of us brothers and sisters were in this picture, along with the double cousins, Linda Faye and Reuben Jr., who had come a-visiting from Colorado, with Aunt Vivian and Uncle Reub. None of us were smiling. We looked a rag-tag group, me especially with my uncombed hair, wearing shorts and a shirt with a big hole in it, belly exposed. Rainboe's father had laughed at that picture so hard, he wept. I've not seen that picture since; I believe he took and has kept that picture to this day. Truly, that picture was a 'Spanky and our Gang' moment for sure!! When Jodie was a baby, our mother used to share with me how beautiful his eyes were; she called them 'dark shining pools.' Over the years, his eye surgeries began to take away from that, and one of his brown eyes became blue. My understanding was that in his youth, Jodie could see, but experimental surgery on one of his eyes blinded him as a result. Doctors wanted to conduct exploratory surgery on his other eye, but Mom put her foot down and said absolutely not. I guess Daddy did, too. I never heard Jodie complain or be wistful about his vision shortcomings, which is admirable. I recall Jodie constantly having to put drops in his eyes, I guess to relieve the glaucoma pressure that he had long-been diagnosed of. Mom said Jodie as her first-born was particularly fair when neither she nor Daddy were. The doctor who was white told Mom to let him play in the sun, I guess to darken him up some so he would look more like his parents. That always struck me as funny. JODIE ON THE GO! I used to admire Jodie because he never let his vision handicap stop him from doing what he wanted to do or go where he wanted to go. And he was always on the go, flying here and there to visit his eye doctors or visit with good friends of his. I don't recall what took Jodie to Chicago once upon a time where he had an opportunity to meet with an uncle none of us had ever met but had only heard about. An oldest brother of Daddy and Uncle Reub's, this brother of theirs had run away from home as a teenager. When Jodie met him as an old man, he said our uncle looked and sounded just like Daddy and Uncle Reub! Married and childless, this uncle was also blind! Glaucoma seemed to be mainly inherited from the Sims side of the family line. Jodie would always leave contact information at the house in Modesto for Mom when he was on a trip somewhere or on an excursion. Once he moved out of our home in Modesto, he would often 'pass through,' spend a night perhaps with us in Modesto, touching base with the family...with Mom mainly...and then shortly be on his way again. ' SOME OF JODIE'S FAVORITE FOODS Jodie loved fish, even fish with bones in them. I recall our mother taking time at the dinner table to take out all the bones of Jodie's plated fish so that he didn't have to. It was Jodie who introduced me to king crab leg at a favorite restaurant he took us to, and I learned to appreciate the expensive seafood. With a party of several of us at a dinner table, empty king crab leg shells were everywhere! Jodie also loved chocolate pie, and he would make the filling for it during his younger years. Those pies were deep, dark chocolate, and you had to have vanilla ice cream to go with it to cut some of that chocolate. Jodie also loved peanuts, and Mom's butterscotch pie, as I recall. Mom relayed that even as a youngster, Jodie seemed to prefer the company of older people. Grown up, he thrived on being around people, and it was no uncommon thing for Jodie to plan a Saturday barbecue in his back yard in Denver, CO, however impromptu it might have been. Even though I might have grown weary of them at times, Jodie didn't! Mom said he loved to have people around him. I saw Jodie as the king (he was a Leo after all!) and all his royal subjects would come to pay homage to him at his backyard barbeque kingdom! JODIE, AN EDUCATED MAN If ever I shared anything to my friends or acquaintances about my family, and particularly about Jodie, I was quick to share that despite his blindness handicap, it did not stop him from attending college and the university. He went to Modesto Junior College to receive his Associates Degree. I do recall that his junior college counselor discouraged him from pursuing a degree and work in the Engineering field, which was what he originally wanted to pursue but was deterred from because of his vision problems. Jodie transferred to Fresno State College and received his Bachelor's degrees in Sociology, I believe. He went on to work for the Stanislaus County Social Welfare Department in Modesto. With his earned income, he bought himself a brand spanking new, navy blue Chevrolet Impala. Mom drove him to his Social work appointments. I remember him driving his beautiful new car around the block with Mom in the car and me in the back seat. That car smelled so good!! It was an import from another state. After a year or two of sobering and rather depressing social work, Jodie decided to go back to school and headed for Berkeley, CA to pursue law. That is where he met his eventual wife, Judy. They married some time later, and Amy and Jay were the two children they brought into the world. JODIE WAS FUN-LOVING AND WELL-TRAVELED Jodie's vision problem didn't stop him from going places and having fun: Once when I was tending Mom's house in Modesto while she was in Colorado, Jodie came by one summer day. I drove us to a waterpark about 30 minutes away, and we went water sliding. I showed Jodie how he was to lie flat on his belly, how to hold the mat with his hands that he would slide on, and keeping his feet up. It was my first and only time water sliding, and Jodie absolutely loved it! We stopped to have lunch there, and he was ready to go again. But not me, I guess to Jodie's disappointment! I was spent. When I was residing in New York City in the seventies, out of the sky-blue, Jodie contacted me asking if I would join him on a three-day ship's cruise to Nassau Island! In the process of separating from my husband, I said yes! When that time came around, I hopped on a train and met Jodie at a coastal city in Florida. He snuck me into a hotel he was staying at during his last night there, having attended a blind attorney's conference. I was introduced to several other blind lawyers, and the next day Jodie and I embarked on a gigantic cruise ship bound for Nassau Island, a 'Baharama' cruise. We DID have fun! We enjoyed flamboyant breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for a few days at a consigned table with six other people. One couple was a cruise director with his wife from another cruise ship! A mother and daughter was at our table, as well; the mother being a retired school teacher, and her daughter was treating her to a cruise extravaganza as a retirement gift. The third couple was a young husband and wife duo. And then there was Jodie and me, brother and sister! Our table of eight was always fun, lively and interesting. By the third day of the cruise, Jodie and I, having burned the midnight oil for a couple days, missed out on early breakfast with our assigned compadres. Three days was simply not enough to explore all that the cruise ship had to offer; there was something going on on every tier of that humongous ship, having three or four tiers! You could play games on the ship. There was night-clubbing on the ship. We did attend one the clubs there and listened to reggae-type music. We had opportunity to go shopping on Nassau Island, and I wanted to purchase a large, beautiful conch shell for sale. Jodie recommended I purchase it later coming back. Disappointedly, that opportunity never came, but Jodie surprised me months or years later by purchasing for me a beautiful conch shell, much like the one I had tried to purchase previously. I have no idea where he got it! The cruise gave us opportunity to gamble at Nassau Island, one of the largest gambling casinos in the western hemisphere. People came from all over the world to gamble and have a good time. I remember seeing turban-wearing Arabs at the slot machines! It was a sight to see! Jodie and I both gambled. If I won anything, I soon lost it. I don't remember either of us coming out of our gambling with great winnings to our credit, unfortunately. On our third and last day, the ship docked at an out island. We had to don life-saving jackets as they lowered us in increments in motor boats hugging the ship. I remember how BIG the ocean struck me as we were hoisted down from a ship that had decks high up from the level of ocean waters. High up, the ocean waters seemed placid and calm. But now on the ocean, river waves or lake waves couldn't compare to how large the waves of the open sea were! We were taken to an out island and snorkeled and played in the water. Baharama hosted a picnic lunch for us on that out island. I never heard Jodie complain of getting sunburned on that day in the Bahamian sun, but days later, I wasn't recognized by our own mother when I got off the plane in Modesto once Jodie and I returned home; I had dropped him off in Denver, as I flew on to Modesto. Both of us were in separation or divorce mode at the time. Jodie and I attended one of the flamboyant casino shows that last evening, and we got special close seating because of Jodie's eyesight. When what appeared to be a movie showing a damsel in distress being saved by some knight in shining armor projected onto the long and flowing satiny curtains, what looked like a movie of a knight on his horse began, but the movie suddenly became reality, and the knight on horseback burst out from the sheer curtains, bringing his stamping, strutting horse out from behind them and up a shoulder strip of the stage pretty close to the audience. Jodie and I were wedged in, amazed and also alarmed, looking for a quick out if we had to run, just in case that large horse threatened to trip and fall off the strip and onto any of its audience, which could be us! But there was nowhere to run because of the crowd of people behind us having filled up that theatre room. If we did try to escape and make a run for it, we'd have to trample on other people in our haste to get away. Fortunately, the rider of the horse was able to keep his charge in tight rein, and he eventually drew it back to the common stage area finally, walking that horse backward. Whew! Close call, it seemed! But what a thrilling, exciting night it was at that international gambling casino! Compared to all of his brothers and sisters, Jodie was the most educated and traveled member of our immediate family. The man has been to countries I didn't even know he went to! Several years ago I saw pictures of Jodie climbing up a pyramid in Peru right before he was moving to Assisted Living. Whenever did he go to Peru? I recall Jodie speaking hopeful about going to a Portuguese-speaking African country where Amy was living as a Peace Corp volunteer. Jodie said visiting Africa would be the last continent on earth that he had yet to plant his feet on, and he wanted me to get my passport so that I could escort him there. He had been most everywhere else. My goodness!! JODIE IN HEAVEN NOW! I believe that Jodie is in Heaven now. As I shared with Jay and Amy earlier, his suffering is no longer. Jodie is seeing because glaucoma and blindness have gone by the wayside. Jodie is walking because Parkinson's disease was left behind. I wrote that Jodie is young again and that he is younger than me, and he is younger than you! I believe that Jodie was met at Heaven's Gate as he was ushered into Heaven, and I believe that Mom and Dad were there to meet and greet him. Cousin Booby, too. Aunt Vivian and Uncle Reuben were likely there, and Robinson family members, to boot! I shared that while we mourn and grieve on THIS side of Heaven, ALL of Heaven rejoices! Most importantly, JESUS was there to receive Jodie. What an awesome experience THAT must have been for my brother! Now, you couldn't pay Jodie to come back to this earth, even if his sight and physical capabilities were given back to him because in truth, JODIE IS HOME! On this earth he was but a pilgrim passing through as the Bible says God's people do. Pilgrims passing through. Praise God!!!