I remember back when I went home to deal with my Nmom's death and planning her funeral, my brother was back on drugs and being just a general a-hole to all of us.

My boyfriend and I went over to talk to him about who would be the administrator of the estate. Seeing as how he was without a job and needed to find a new place to live, I told him that I would take over and be the administrator. However, he thought that by me doing it, he wouldn't get his share of the estate and refused to listen to me or my boyfriend, so he said that we would both be co-administrators (yet he wants me to do the work and he wants the right to veto anything I try to do, but that's another issue altogether). He went on a tirade about how I just came back to steal things and ruin his life. But what got me and my boyfriend in uproarious laughter was when he accused us of stealing chip clips, you know, those things you clip on bags of potato chips to close them. He just lambasted me and him and it came to such a point where when I tried to leave, Nbro grabbed and yanked me away from the front door. Boyfriend shoved Nbro and got in between me and Nbro and told him to, "never fucking touch her again!" Then Nbro got in his face and said, "Hey, mister tough guy. What are you going to do about it? I'm bigger than you." Boyfriend just stared him down and said, "If you EVER touch her again, you will pay dearly." And it went into a heated staring contest between those two, but it gave me time to get out of the house and Boyfriend followed shortly. Nbro did not lay a finger on Boyfriend, which I am glad he did not. I didn't want Boyfriend to get in trouble.

I couldn't believe what I saw, though. I NEVER had anybody be willing to stand up to my brother. My mom would let him shove me around as much as he wanted, because that meant he wouldn't go after her. When other previous boyfriends saw it, they wouldn't get involved. They would say, "it's none of my business, it's something you both have to work out." All these years of having to be subjected to abuse and finally I find someone who's willing to protect me, even if they get hurt in the process. I couldn't have been more in love with this man.

After the situation, my boyfriend decided that he was going to give it right back to Nbro. And not in an awful way, just a passive-aggressive way.

After we went to lunch and were walking back to our car, there was a dollar store right by the restaurant. He looked at it and told me he was going inside to get something. I asked him what he was getting and he told me, "You'll see."

He went in there and got several chip clips and a gift bag to put them in. And he had plans on giving it to him at Nmom's funeral. It was genius.

So the day of the funeral comes and we're at the funeral home, greeting visitors. My boyfreind walks over to Nbro and gives him the gift bag, saying that he's got a gift for him. My Nbro was so nervous about opening it up. He said, "Man, I hope there isn't a bomb in here or something..."

To his relief, there wasn't a bomb. It was just the chip clips. He looks at my boyfriend and chuckles, "Oh, you're a funny motherfucker." And boyfriend said, "Well, I know how much you needed those chip clips, so I went and got them for you."

Honestly, if it weren't for Boyfriend, I don't know where I'd be. I love this man more than life.