The Speech I gave with my sisters

Meredith:

The Weiner children have always been somewhat of a packaged deal. If you want one of us, you’d better be prepared to have us all. Cassandra, Meredith, Erin, and Gregory. Our closeness as siblings really formed due to the fact that we grew up as military brats, moving across the country every two years or so and spending absurd amounts of time in each other’s presence. We experienced a constant flow of change as kids, another new house, another new school, more new friends. The one constant we had to cling to was the fact that we always had each other, no matter what was going on around us. Over the years we spent so much time together, we went through so much together, that an extremely unique bond formed. The four of us were best friends, though none of us would probably ever admit it. I don’t think we ever truly appreciated how special and rare that is. As our friends may be able to attest to, the four of us have so many inside jokes and experiences that we sort of speak in our own language that no one else can understand. We can tell a joke by saying one word, share a story with a quick glance, or provide sympathy with only a fleeting smile. In a sense we are four variations of the same person. Our brother Gregory, the youngest, the lone boy, was an integral part of our sibling package. He was our constant source of entertainment. When he was a baby we loved him because he was so cute. When he was an adolescent we loved him because he got in trouble the most. And when he was a teenager we loved him because he could always make us laugh. He never sat still. Not for a moment. Always had to be doing something. Having fun was his number one priority. And even though pestering his big sisters seemed to be his greatest source of fun, we for some reason never minded it. That was Greg’s greatest gift: you couldn’t really get mad at him. He tricked me into electrocuting myself once, and even thought it hurt, we both just laughed. Another time he ran me over on his bicycle. And even though that REALLY hurt, we still both just laughed. I can’t tell you the number of hot dogs and slurpees I somehow willingly bought him from 7-11. He would treat me to the movies, but I always paid. Some people would say he was a Ratsicle, but really he was just a charmer.

Erin:

That statement could not be anymore true. When Cassandra and Meredith had left for college, it was just me and the boy. On our drives to high school, despite the driver chooses the music rule, Greg and I would routinely argue about what music to listen to. IN the end, like Meredith said, Greg would charm me into listening to his screamo metal music. By the end of my senior year , I made Greg proud, and was able to decipher most of the words.
Like our music battles, Greg and I had countless bickering arguments. When we were little, everything was my fault. Greg’s reason: I was the only kid with blonde hair. Then, as we were mature adults, we would physically fight over who would get the front seat. However, as we grew older, these meaningless fights over shotgun and music slowly disappeared, and a strong admitted friendship blossomed. I cannot begin to say how great this past semester was, having my little brother at Virginia Tech with me. We hung out so much; I saw Gregory at least six days out of the week. We both played water polo, and I even convinced Greg to take a class with me, although it didn’t take much convincing though, I told him the prof. gave us RC Colas and moonpies on our first day, and he was sold.). Much like in high school, Greg and I had a routine. I would call him every morning to wake him up. Then, five minutes later, I would call him again knowing he had gone back to bed. We would meet up for food, and he would comment EVERY DAY, about “It is a good thing we don’t have matching backpacks, or that would be embarrassing” we did. It was.
Greg would stay over at my apartment all the time with the goal of finishing all of our school work but it always ended up with us going of, watching youtube videos for hours, laughing until we were in tears. I even stayed over on his dorm room floor some nights, staying up till who knows when playing super smash brothers with his amazing hall mates. Come to think of it, we never did get much done. Ever.
. Sitting around, not making sense and just goofing off with Greg, were some of the best times I have had at college. Greg was truly one of a kind. A single semester at Tech and I could see how many people he had met and charmed into loving him, they way we have all along.

Cassandra:

When I first found out about Gregory, I wanted him to be my baby…literally, I wanted him to grow up calling me Mom, and while this was absolutely rational for my five year old self, my mom said no. I was mad for a while but then I was content to have this cute little Buddha bellied brother to dress up in tutus, steal ice cream from after convincing him the sprinkles were really ants, and laugh at when he chased our babysitter around, professing his love her, naked. It was good times. But then, one day, I realized that he wasn’t so much a brother as a friend. I think it may have been the countless hours we spent together as “moving buddies” sitting in the back of the little car while my dad would quiz us about sports trivia that made us so like minded. Whether we were driving around in the creaky old van blasting rap, screamo, or techno music, sneaking into Yu-gi-oh and Pokemon movies, or wearing the exact same pair of pants (although his were 2 sizes smaller than mine) I always knew I had someone who would be there with me regardless. When I moved away to Florida, Gregory was there to help me move into my apartment and eat my entire supply of toaster strudels. When I then moved even farther away to Mongolia, he was there to message with me and admit that he too would have tried the sheep brain. Gregory just accepted you as you were, and worked with it. He had “IT,” knew that he had “IT,” and didn’t care. That’s what made him awesome. He had a five minuet online conversation with my Mongolian friend once…5 minuets…and that was it. She absolutely loved him. She was even going to fly him out to visit this summer, that’s how much he impressed her. Gregory and I would talk a lot about the awesome things he was going to do when he grew up, and while much of it was just nonsense and much of it involved Jackie Chan, we both knew that he was gonna do something special. And he did. He lived his life, his way, to the fullest. How many of us wish that we could do just that? And then, even in death, he made an amazing impact on peoples live. I just get so proud of him when I think how happy he made some family this holiday season by giving their kid that big, loving heart of his. Forget Jackie Chan. Gregory, its you who are most epic…our brother, our friend, our hero.