Malcolm

Last week, Preston Tyler, whose journey has been tracked in the pages of this publication, underwent surgery on the right temporal lobe of his brain that was intended to correct a condition which caused him to suffer from seizures.

Preston was released from the hospital last Saturday. It will be a considerable amount of time before it can be determined if the surgery was successful in eliminating the seizures. What we can celebrate at this time is that Preston is recovering from a very difficult and dangerous surgery.

Preston is one of two children in the Tyler family. Preston has an older brother, Malcolm, who is a high school junior. In the fifteenth chapter of Luke’s gospel Jesus tells the story of one brother who became very jealous of a brother in his family who was receiving a great deal of attention.

Though Preston has certainly not been a “prodigal son,” Malcolm has had every opportunity to be the “elder brother.”

Over the past several months Preston and his medical situation has commanded a great deal of attention from parents, relatives and friends. With all of the focus on Preston it would have been very easy for Malcolm to have resented the attention that Preston has received. This has not been the case.

While the last week has been eventful for Preston it was also eventful for Malcolm. On Tuesday Malcolm was at the hospital with his family as many of us gathered with Preston before his surgery, as we awaited word concerning the surgery and as Preston left the operating room and began the process of recovery.

On Wednesday evening, Malcolm returned to Monticello with me from Augusta. Friday, Malcolm took the field with the Piedmont Academy baseball team. The entire team had written the initials “P.T.” on their faces.

Malcolm was the designated hitter and knocked in a run as the Cougars defeated LaGrange 4-3. As he stepped into the batters box I noticed that Malcolm took the end of his bat and traced his brother’s initials in the dirt.

On Saturday morning the Cougars took on their arch-rivals, the Gatewood Gators. Malcolm pitched three strong innings as a relief pitcher and did not allow the Gators to score any runs. He walked a couple of times and scored a run as Piedmont defeated Gatewood 5-3.

On Saturday evening Malcolm and his girlfriend Jesse enjoyed Piedmont’s Prom. It was a fitting celebration with Preston being released from the hospital that day. Through it all Malcolm never forgot his brother and kept him at the forefront of his thinking.

Preston has been blessed with caring parents, a tremendous extended family, and wonderful friends. He has also been blessed with a big brother, who though he may not like to say it, loves him very much.

While we remember Preston on his journey let’s not forget the big brother who has his back. Good job Malcolm!