Woke Up With This Song Playing In My Mind, "Victory In Jesus." Let Me Tell You What Happened. How Appropriate This Song Today, Happy Birthday To My Brother That Died In His Early 20's, He Would Have Been 65 Today. So, A Cherished Family Cake Recipe To Share With You.

I did not listen to this song yesterday or before I went to sleep last night. I woke up with the song playing in my mind, "Victory in Jesus." Then I remembered it was my brother's birthday today. He died in his early 20's in a boating accident in which there were 4 survivors and the 3 without life preservers perished. Throughout the years I have wanted to write a book about this and interview the 4 survivors to get more details. I have felt all along that the book would be co-authored but no one in my immediate family wants to write with me. It was a tragic death. I still remember the local newspapers that came to our home and interviewed my mother. We were all in shock. We found out by a tiny little article in the local newspaper. My parents were divorced and the worst part was my father called and started blaming my mother that he died because he went on the trip that he went on. I am ashamed to say that that type of outburst came from my very own father.
What made it worse was it was over an Easter weekend and we could not have a mass of the resurrection until after Easter Sunday. From what I recollect the survivors said that the boat lost communication and then they were in a storm. Prior to the storm we were told that my brother read to the from a pocket sized bible an aunt gave to him before this trip. One of the survivors was afraid that if the boat crashed or was destroyed that the boat would collapse on them. My brother who did not have a life preserver on hovered over this survivor so as to not let the boat crash on her. When the boat was tossed in the water (mind you it was near the Bermuda Triangle) a foreign vessel was trying to throw them a tow and with the waves the boat crashed, it broke up (not sure of the technical terminology.) I do not quite understand all of this I do remember hearing that they were in international waters. We have the coast guard report and I have read it before but I do not understand some of the lingo used in the report. The 4 survivors said that while they were in the water they heard my brother's voice up until a point and then they no longer heard him.
In my wildest imagination I couldn't help but think that he was eaten by some sort of something while in the water. The hopeful side of me for many years wanted to think he was eventually found and was on an island somewhere with amnesia and we would see him again.
I had a very vivid  dream and I saw exactly what he was wearing when all of this happened. This is what I saw, my brother and I were in the water standing and there was a glass partition between us and I was able to see him and what he was wearing. His red, white and blue colored plaid shirt and his jeans. This dream bothered me so much so that I probably hounded my mother to ask a survivor what he was wearing. Sure enough, the clothing I was shown in the dream is what they confirmed. I always wanted my brother to dance with me on my wedding day. Do you know a few months before he went on this trip my sister and I were presented in a Croatian debutante ball. Since my father could not dance with the both of us at the same time my brother danced with me at the time we were to dance. In hind sight he danced with me in my "white" gown and he was in his tuxedo. Isn't that ironic?
So, I wake up with this song playing in my mind on his birthday. Then I begin to wonder to myself if my grandmother is able to bake him a cake in heaven. I chuckled with my mom about that today. I reminded her that my brother and I were both having significant birthday's this year weeks apart and if he was still alive that we could have celebrated them together. One day in heaven we will. Praise God.
Before I called my mother on the way to work I felt led to look up the lyrics to the song and with no music playing I then found myself singing this song in the car to Jesus. I had a few tears and that was my experience on the way to work. Listen to this song and the lyrics it will touch your heart also.
I had this recipe for a while but I only recently made this cake. It is delicious and a bit dense in texture. It is in my grandmother's hand writing may you enjoy it. The recipe is for Graham Cracker Cake with Orange Butter Cream Frosting. My sister and I did not go for a traditional looking gown for this event. We picked out styles that we liked.

My brother