Dedicated to D

In the summer of 1979, right before I went to kindergarten, I met a little kid while trying to ride my bike without training wheels. Me and this little kid decided to race to the mailbox and back. For the next 15 years that kid would be by neighbor and best friend. I have had allot of dreams about allot of people the past few months. In a situation like we are in, there is a good chance that childhood friends and schoolmates will never be seen again in this lifetime. Of all the people I think about I think of this brother the most. Every thing I did from the ages of five to eighteen, me and this man did together. We got off training wheels the same week. We lost our virginity the same day. We got robbed together, got beat up together and caught beatings from our parents for breaking curfew at the same time. When things got hot in the neighborhood, we would always look out for one another and keep one another safe. We had our own code words,had our own word to describe something good (vicious). We shared the same love of pro wrestling( I remember when we cried when JYD had to leave town) , and we even had nicknames for our mothers only we could use(Lean and Dene). Once we became adults things changed and we went our seperate ways. We both spent a good portion of our 20's fighting our own personal demons. Through all of that there was one thing I always knew. That was my brother. It has hard keeping up with him and when I did get news about him it wasn't positive. The last time I seen him was at his wedding when he declared that no one in the room, not even his best man would share as many things as we did. I always knew how to reach him if I wanted to because our parents lived two houses apart. Now the neighborhood is gone and neither one of our families may be back. Five years from now I am going to be riding through New Orleans and get to the 54oo block of St. Claude in the Lower Nine. I am going to see that big oak tree that looks right into St. Claude Ct. and think about all the days and nights we spent sitting on that tree and sharing our ghetto dreams.

Here's to my friend and brother Devin Robert Bateman. I hope you and your family made it out of the city in one piece. Know one knows what the future holds. Maybe one of these days we will get together, share a beer and watch the wrestling match together. If not, I hope you are at peace and I will see you on the other side. I love ya pretty boy no matter what.