.

.

 

ALEJANDRO CASTANO: Loving Sibling Rivalry

 

When you are born 11 months apart, sibling rivalry can take on a whole new meaning. Alejandro Castano made an art out of torturing and teasing his sister Claudia Sanchez. "Look at my bike, it's better than yours," he would tell her each summer while they were growing up in Englewood, N.J. And when tensions between the two got really heated, Mr. Castano would pull out his favorite taunt: "You're not really my sister. You're adopted."

For Ms. Sanchez, there was no refuge, even her Barbie dolls became victims. Those moments are cherished now. "It was just the two of us. Alej loved to play games, to make jokes," Ms. Sanchez said of her brother, who as a delivery man for Empire Distribution in Carlstadt, N.J., dropped off office supplies to the World Trade Center every day. "That was just his way of saying, `I love you.' "

Only his mother could quiet the joking. "He was always telling us, `You can't cook,' " Ms. Sanchez said. "But as soon he got a plate of my mother's pork chops, rice and beans and plantains, it was a different story. He was a little kid in paradise."

.

From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times