In this post, I comment on being the youngest of my siblings and the tremendous benefits of growing up with older brothers and sisters.

My older brother Carl would be 81 years old today, September 6, 2026, and that set my mind to reminiscing. We lost him to ALS in 2015 at the age of 70, but I know I can speak for my sisters, CJ and Marion, and my brother Bob, in saying we miss him every day. My sister-in-law Donna, just six days younger than Carl, would be 81 on September 12. Unfortunately, we lost Donna in 2013, and we miss her in the same way. And, we absolutely miss my brother-in-law Jack as well. The 15^th anniversary of Jack’s passing at age 70 in 2011 was on August 31.

But this post is not meant to be maudlin or sad; rather, it is an opportunity for me – the youngest of my siblings – to remember and highlight how great it was to grow up as the “baby” or the “caboose” of the family. My sisters were young teenagers and Carl eleven years old when I was born, and that made for a wonderful dynamic in our family.

A simple on-line search will tell you there are several advantages to being the youngest, including: having more freedom because mom and dad are more experienced at parenthood and tend to be more relaxed and lenient with the baby of the family; learning from the good example set by older brothers and sisters, as well as learning what not to do from their experiences and mistakes; learning social and communication skills at a younger age thanks to interacting with older and more experienced siblings; and the overall built-in support from the older ones. 

You can search and find many supposed disadvantages, too, but that is not the way I look at it. While the youngest of the family, from simple mathematics, naturally has the least amount of time with loved ones before they complete their life journeys, nothing can compare with the time spent, love, and compassion of my older siblings from my childhood to the present day. Quality time definitely made up for the lower quantity.

Looking back, it is not hard to remember examples of how they cared for me and helped shape who I am now.

• CJ encouraged my writing and distributed the “newspaper” and books I wrote beginning at age eight to her colleagues at the Bell Telephone Company. She drove Bob and I around town when we were little and was a good listener when I graduated from college, got my first job, and desired to move into my preferred career choice.
• Marion was a “little mother” to Bob and I when we were kids, and especially after our Dad passed away when I was just eleven years old and Bob twelve. Always lots of fun, she took us on our first rollercoaster rides at Hanson’s Amusement Park long ago. She practiced giving us haircuts and manicures while she was attending school to become a beautician, and one of my first jobs was cleaning her beauty shop so it was ready for the next day’s appointments.
• Carl taught me how to play baseball, football, and basketball when I was little, and later on tennis and golf. He and Donna moved back to our home area after our Dad died so they could be there for me and Bob. The teen-age Carl was often out in the yard playing with us when his high school friends arrived to pick him up. We later played softball together for many years and closely followed the Philadelphia Phillies, Eagles, and Flyers.
• Bob is only sixteen months older than me, but he, too, helped me forge my path. Not only did we grow up together, but he told me about the teachers at school because he was a year ahead of me. So I always knew their personalities and what I was getting into ahead of time. Bob and I hiked through the woods, shot our air guns, and got into all kinds of things together.
• With her overall demeanor and nurse’s training, Donna was always calm and collected, even during challenging times. Bob and I were young when she and Carl got together, so he and I had an extra sister near and dear to us from the time we were little. Bob and I would often go with Carl and Donna wherever they were headed.
• Long before he married Marion, Jack would pick the teenage me up each week and drive us to and from the stock-car races. He drove in the races so when we arrived at the speedway I would jump out of his truck and head to the stands while he proceeded to pit road. Jack was a guy who could build or fix just about anything and I often benefited from his expertise. I can still see him driving the specialty tractor we rented to spread the topsoil for my lawn.
• Bob married Mary Ellen long ago, and my other siblings and I were happy to include another sister in the family. Bob, Mary Ellen, and I all worked at The Boston Store in Wilkes-Barre during our high school and college years. She worked in the bakery and managed to give us tasty samples of the baked goods. We were also students at Wilkes College at the same time.

Having older siblings created a tremendous atmosphere for Bob and I while growing up and then as adults. Even in grade school, we were up on the latest music and trends. Carl worked for Capitol Records way back when and we often got the new Beatles records early, including at times before they were available in stores. Those were the days of Beatlemania, and as you can imagine, that made us a big hit with our friends.

Time marches on, of course, and our family soon included several nieces and nephews. I became an uncle at age ten, and it was like finally having some younger siblings around! “Dad” and “Uncle” are two of the greatest roles I’ve ever been blessed to have, and always will be.

Children grow up in all kinds of families. As for Bob and I, there is no way to possibly explain how blessed we’ve been to have such tremendous older siblings always there to teach, protect, mentor, explore, and entertain us.

As a well-known television ad expressed it so well; priceless.

REMEMBER

◊ Australian author Kerry Greenwood said, “I used to tell my three younger siblings stories because that was my household chore, and I told long stories in installments because it was easier and more fun than making up a new story every night. I loved it.”¹

◊  English singer, songwriter, and actor Eliot Sumner said, “I started listening to a lot of Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young when I was eight or nine years old. I had siblings that gave me good music instead of the crap that was on the radio in the ‘90s.”²

◊ American politician Bill Owens said, “Families are the tie that reminds us of yesterday, provide strength and support today, and give us hope for tomorrow. No government, no matter how well-intentioned, or well-managed, can provide what our families provide.”³

◊ Visit www.davidajolley.com for additional blog posts, other interesting content, and updates on future book releases and appearances.

1. Greenwood, Kerry, BrainyQuote, https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/kerry_greenwood_713328 ↩︎
2. Sumner, Eliot, BrainyQuote, https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/eliot_sumner_862543 ↩︎
3. Owens, Bill, BrainyQuote, https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/bill_owens_167730 ↩︎