Elder Ringo "Z" George Boots aka Zane

I have to admit that I am one of the luckiest girls when it comes to brothers. I am the only girl smack dab in the middle of two brothers that are 14 years apart (my parents planned well!) I feel compelled to tell you about my little brother Zane. Although he is known by MANY nicknames, for example: George (my mom has called him this since the day he was born), Ringo (because when he grows his hair out he looks like Ringo Star), Boots (because for like his entire 10th and 11th years of life he would only wear these horribly ugly old cowboy boots) and my most used for him "Z" because its short and to the point. Zane is your typical 15 year old boy, full of life and attitude, but under this self proclaimed "red neck" is seriously the sweetest kid ever! I just have to give you some examples of how great this tough exterior sweet interior kid really is. Last summer, a autistic boy in our neighborhood wandered away and eventually the cops were called because no one could find him.

Now Zane being the "doer" that he is, immediately went searching

for him. As he was cruising around on his 4-wheeler Zane got the overwhelming feeling to head up the mountains toward the old water tank in Elk Ridge. This area was totally out of the way and would have taken anyone a while to get up to, so it seemed highly unlikely this child would head up there. Sure enough, Zane was definitely inspired to go up there. After a little bit of searching in the area Zane found him. When he got back down, he told us that he "just knew he had to go up there and he would find him." This to me totally explains whats magic about Zane, he really does have the roughest of exteriors, all man... all about "killin stuff" and hitting on girls, but when it comes down to it there is the sweetest most endearing young man within him; he is the type of kid that it doesn't matter who it is, he will ALWAYS HELP. He really has no idea what kind of an example he can be! One time we were at Blockbuster checking out some movies when he noticed that an older woman had a flat tire and was struggling to change it herself, I had no more of pointed it out and Zane was dashing over to help her get it changed. My mom and Zane were once pulling into Barnes and Noble on a winter day when as they were parking they saw this elderly man slip and land really hard on the pavement. My mom hadn't even stopped the car when Zane sprinted

to assist this older man. Zane got him into the store and waited with

him to make sure he was okay and well taken care of. Zane has a way

of always knowing when something is wrong with me and the first

person to ask what he can do. Zane has this magic about him when he is dealing with elderly people; he has such patients and love for them and doesn't have the slightest discomfort in rest homes, when many 0f us cringe at the idea. Knowing that my liberal views rarely are agreed with, Zane always defends me to his friends when they start to criticize my stances. But on top of all this greatness there is the funniest stinkin' kid you've EVER met! One night my mom and I came home to an old broken down office chair fastened to our four-wheeler with what he expressed very confidently to me "7 ROPES MADDIE! ITS SECURE!" ha ha and sure enough I jumped on and it was!

He is full of nonsense and can be totally inappropriate, not to mention he rarely, RARELY stops talking about cars! He thinks swimming in ponds at golf courses is proper and that Mikey from American Chopper is the greatest man on earth, ha ha but the kid really is amazing! I am so lucky to have Zane in my life, my parents accident has really made me such a better person and I am so incredibly proud of him!