Did you ever read Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust? As the story begins, the hero is an older man. He eats a cookie called a madeleine. The familiar taste of this cookie, a cookie he had eaten as a child, brought back his whole life before him, to the tune of seven volumes.

I had a madeleine memory the other day.  In my case, the madeleine was the name of a place.

I was innocently watching President Obama’s speech, the one where he was talking from Camp Le Jeune, a Marine training camp. That’s what set me off. Camp Le Jeune.

Previously on this  blog, I wrote five entries here about my brother Sid who meant so much to me.  He was my adoring big brother, and I was his adoring little sister. I suppose you could say that Sid was like a God to me. Sadly, in later years,  there was strain and heartache between us. Sid died many many years ago, but we had been lost to each other long before that.

My brother Sid joined the Marines right out of high school, and he had his training at Camp LeJeune. The name Camp LeJeune brought my brother Sid memories back.

Here it is, so many years later, and I could see my brother in his dress Marine uniform before me, so thin and young and handsome. He had just come home on leave after basic training. The morning he got back, I was in school. To the delight of my heart, my brother had come to take me out of school so he could spend the day with me. His eyes were happy, and I can still feel the wonderfulness of the moment.

That was such a lovely surprise, his taking me out of school. It wasn’t anything I would have thought of, and yet he thought of it.

This is such a lovely memory of the love between my brother and me that once was, sweet but sad.

What might your madeleine be?