I have been watching the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina on TV and I particularly love Speed Skating. It is one of the oldest and time-honored of sports in the history of the Olympics. It is my favorite sport to watch and always has been. My brother Johnny and I were amateur speed skaters and he also loved this sport as much as I did. We taught ourselves and somehow we managed to be pretty good at this sport. The winters were quite cold growing up on Long Island when we did, comparable to our present very cold winter in New Jersey. Long Island was surrounded by water so we could walk or get a ride to various lakes, ponds or bays. After we arrived, we would lace up our ice skates and get to racing each other and often had friends with us too. We were very close in age–only 14 months apart and we had no other siblings. Throughout our lives we had a great bond of love and support for each other. Covid-19 took my only sibling away from me so suddenly and unexpectedly like a thief in the night. I will always think of Johnny when I see skating.