Wow, SONN, that story was powerful. I didn't know your brother died in 2015... I'm so sorry. I can't imagine what it would be like to lose either of my two wonderful siblings.
My old therapist (I'll call her K) told me a similar story; one that makes you stop and think about the nature of life and death. Her dad had a distinctive little tune, uniquely his own, which he would whistle every time he walked in the door when he got home from work.
When he became very sick, K came to his bedside and pleaded, "Dad, if you can, would you send me a message from the other side?" He agreed. "And don't be subtle about it -- I can be oblivious sometimes. Really make yourself known!"
Well, the day he died, K came home from seeing him one last time at the hospital. As soon as she stepped into the door, she heard the tune. Following the sound, she was led to her little daughter's bedroom, who had no idea what had happened. K asked her why she was whistling. Her daughter looked at her with a quizzical expression, and said, "I don't know. I can't stop!" Her daughter never knew how to whistle. The next day, when K asked her to repeat the performance, try as she might, she couldn't do it.
...
Now, I can't prove that K didn't make this whole thing up, or exaggerate it. But damn, it really stuck in my mind ever since I heard it.
~~~
Random Stoner Thought of the Day™ (possibly inspired by that time travel thread):
Both memory and control are translations between reality and ideas. Memory is the translation of an event into a conceptual record of the event, and control is the translation of a plan of action into the action itself. The reason you can't control the past, nor remember the future, is that this translation can only occur in one direction: from past to future. This is because any process of translation relies on the laws of nature, which consistently attribute an effect to a prior cause, but not necessarily a prior cause to an effect (keep going south, and you'll always end up at the equator; but if you're on the equator, you didn't necessarily travel south to get there).