I didn’t say he was tryiing to fuck with you… I said he was drunk!
Twickster, I see why it’s a surprise, and truth is, in your shoes, I would also, given the initial surprise/shock, be thinking WTF, in the sense of sense of “holy shit, where, whence, why, how” etc. It can mean merely utter surprise and taken-aback-ness without any bad intention.
Once a “we don’t talk much any more even if there was no real reason not to, but just grew away …” relationship has become the norm, it can be hard for people to get back in touch again. I have a brother rather like that. Oho, but weirder! Heh, I’ve had times of oddness of both of my brothers, but the one I have in mind now - no the situation is not even the same because your brother has not departed in a big bad mood and seeks a way back to family , but it is still an oddness when the unexpected happens.
OK, three years is a fair old bit of time, so there’s the shock aspect. It’s good, though, 'cos you were able to sit and think whether you want more communication with your brother and want any support he can give, but once the shock wears off, it’s a fun strange thing when family members do get back in touch when a perceived need arises. ( I have NO idea re. the nature of your difficulties right now).
It’s lovely, though, isn’t it? I’m glad you’re thinking of what help he can offer, but I do so absolutely see what a weird surprise that 'phone call must have been. One might rather wish for the days of no 'phones where such unexpected communications would only arrive via the postman, so that you say “ah, the letters have arrived” and you might only read them later once settled down with a nice cup of tea. 
'Phone calls are just so damn immediate.
I’m hoping things with your brother go well and that things with the Horrible Suckiness of Life get better.
:p:p:p
Heh, a call I got a few days ago worried me somewhat. I didn’t get to the (landline) 'phone in time before the answering machine kicked in. No problem: that’s fine. BUT the message was my father simply saying realname. Hmm. So I do 1471 to get the last number that called (not sure why I did, but I did) and this got me confused as I did not recognise the number but knew it was a mobile. Dad does have a mobile 'phone but never uses it.
So I 'phoned the mobile, and that went straight to answering service, then I ‘phone my parents’ home and that went straight to the answering thingy, and then I am all confused and wondering what the hell is going on. It’s very unlikely they would have been out in the evening, so my thought ran to things like problems necessitating a trip to hospital and so on. Both are in their 70s and mother has Alzheimer’s so I did find it worrying.
And soon Dad got back to me and explained it that their home 'phone had got “lost” (under a pillow in a spare bedroom - yeah, I did mention the loopy Alzheimer’s, didn’t I?) so all was well. In fact it’s probably a good thing as it might reinforce for Dad that keeping the mobile 'phone charged up and nearby could have its uses. But one word messages that just say my name are alarming.
Like the other posters I think that he is just being a loving brother even though you have both let things slide for a while.
I hope that the suckiness in your life abates and that things start getting better for you generally.
We’re all here for you and we’re all willing you good things even though you may not be consciously aware of it.
Lets wish that things start looking up this very day.
This happens to me several times a week, and to the best of my knowledge, I don’t have Alzheimer’s or any other kind of dementia. I mean, not under a pillow in the spare bedroom, but I can’t find the dratted phone! I have missed calls because of this once or twice, cussing a blue streak while it was happening.
My brother-in-law (husband of my sister, who is the sibling with whom I am close) called to ask if I’d heard from my brother. He said that this mysterious phone call can be attributed to my niece, the brother’s daughter. Said niece lived with my sister and BIL this past summer (she goes to college in our area; her parents, my brother and SIL, live in DC), so I saw way more of her than I had in the previous, oh, 20 years or so. At one point I’d mentioned to her (as a matter-of-fact aside in conversation about something completely different) that her father and I had spoken exactly once over the last three and a half years. She found this utterly outrageous and chewed him out about it over Labor Day, when she was home for a few days. His reaction was to call my sister and ask her what was up with me, and my sister told him “if you want to know, why don’t you call twicks?” So he did.
Thus the phone call. It took the intervention of not one but two people, my niece and my sister, to get him to call me. Any wonder I was so frigging surprised?
Your OP has inspired me to call my sister.
Thanks.
I’m with ya, twicks. I have a sister and two brothers. One brother and I talk regularly and there’s nothing awkward between us. I talk to my sister to give her information, or get information, and that’s about it. We get along better in smaller doses, and there’s not much in the way of small talk.
My other brother, though… I call him every year on his birthday - and usually get his voicemail; he’s not sure when my birthday is, but about once every three years or so he calls me within three or four days of it, so he’s getting closer (and you share my birthday, so you know it’s kind of hard for anyone to screw that one up!) I invite him for holidays and family parties, to which he always says he’s coming, but only shows up about a third of the time. I can count on one hand the number of times he has initiated contact in the 32 years he’s been alive. I love him to pieces, and he loves me too, but he’s just not the keeping in touch type. If he called me to check on me, commiserate or just chat, I would fall over in a dead faint.
Same for me; I’m utterly devoted to my brothers, but we only talk a handful of times a year, and get together once a year, primarily because of my mom, for the holidays. What with one of them in Hawai’i, the other in Cleveland, and all of us in a fair amount of financial straits, I’m not at all sure that would continue if she and my dad were to die. I’m not shocked if they call, but I am usually surprised. I never call them, because I have no long distance on my landline, and only prepaid minutes on my cellphone, which I’m saving for emergencies as long as I can.