About this user
On Saturday, February 17th, 2007, I stood alongside my brother Eddie, serving as best man in he and Joni's wedding. The ceremony was beautiful and there was a reception that followed. At the reception, I had intended on making a toast and sharing a customary "best man" speech with everyone in attendance. But suddenly, before I made my move, the party was over, and people were leaving. And I was devastated that I missed my moment. It has haunted me to this day. So I would like to share with the world here and now, the best man speech that never was...until now:
I was extremely honored when my brother Eddie asked me to stand as his best man in his wedding. Not just because he's my brother, and I love him beyond words, but because anyone who knows Eddie, understands what I'm talking about when I say this is one of the purest human souls there is.
I don't know if you all have a day in your past that you can claim as the single greatest day of your life, without thinking about it too hard. But I would like to share with you the single greatest day of my life; I was six years old, attending first grade back in Denver, Colorado. After school one day, I stopped off at my friend Jeff Obermeyer's house to have a look at some plastic Star Wars weaponry. (He had just obtained Han Solo's blaster, and I had to see it for myself.) So I called up my Mom and asked if I could stay at Jeff's for a while and play with some Star Wars guns. And Mom said to me, "You can if you'd like, but you might want to come home...you have a new baby brother here." Now this was very bold of my Mother to say, knowing that he was a foster child who could be taken by social services at any given time, and integrated back into his biological mother's home. But I didn't know this at the time, all I knew was I had a new baby brother at home. I hung up the phone, told Jeff and his mother the news, and sprinted home with my backpack full of books and a Star Wars lunch box flopping side to side. I mean I was really running! I ran into the house and there he was, lying belly down on the middle of the living room floor with a crazy mop of hair, big warm curious eyes, and an ear-to-ear grin like I had never seen in my life.
I immediately hit the floor and stared at him and played with him for the rest of the afternoon. That night as I went to bed, I discovered that this might be a little bit of a problem. Eddie was allowed to stay up past my bed time and I had to listen to my Mom and Dad laugh and play with him while I attempted to rest up for the next day at school. I got very little sleep that night. It felt like the night before Christmas. I was anticipating the excitement of waking up to this magical little person grinning at me.
For the next four years, I lived in fear that my little brother would be taken away from me. When social services would come to take him on visits to his biological mother's house, he would first hide behind the curtains, and then I would watch him scream bloody murder as they carried him away. The hours or sometimes days that Eddie was gone on these visits seemed like devastating eternities that left lumps in my throat, and puncture wounds in my heart.
But I won! When I was in fifth grade, Me, Mom and Dad went to the Denver county courthouse, and the adoption of Eddie was finalized. When I returned to school that day, the class gave me a standing ovation upon my entrance. This was and always will be the happiest day of my life.
I love you Eddie. You inspire all of us to be better people. And Joni, congratulations on finding such a great man to be your husband. And I look forward to getting to know you, because any woman that Eddie marries must be someone really special and I wish you both great joy, fantastic laughter, and a lifetime of health and happiness. PEACE AND CHEERS!
Daniel Joseph Dierker
JoniandEddie
uploaded
10 months ago