My Idol's Baby Sister

Floyd Patterson

Eddie

"I don't know, man. I don't like the way he said it." Alex admits. "He called Katie hot, Katie isn't hot. Katie is my little sister."

"Katie is hot." Michael says and both Alex and I hit him.

"Stop it!" My brother and I say in unison.

"Why are you so over protective of her anyways?" David wonders. "She's twenty two and a big girl, she can take care of herself."

"She's our little sister, David." I say simply. "We're allowed to be over protective of her."

"So if that lead singer of Mötley Crüe were to ask her out you'd be perfectly fine with Katie fucking this guy?" Michael wonders.

"No comment." Alex mutters.

"That's not an answer." David laughs and I roll my eyes.

"We don't want to lose her." I finally say.

"To a rock god?" Michael wonders.

"In general, we've almost lost her before." I explain.

Katie was born January 1st of 1962, she wasn't due until April. Mom and dad were at a New Year's Eve party when mom went into early labour. She was born at three minutes after twelve in the morning, weighing only one pound two ounces.

Katie was rushed to get checked over to try to keep our tiny little sister alive. Mom was put to sleep and dad nearly had a panic attack. Alex and I were at our grandmother's house, Alex was going to be nine on his birthday and I was going to be seven in twenty five days.

Eventually my grandmother heard the news and rushed to the hospital with Alex and I, by this time my mother was awake. Katie was in this big glass box with a million different wires are tubes connected all over her tiny body. Alex and I stood in front of the incubator watching out little sister.

I remember thinking that she was so tiny, like I've seen pints of beer bigger than her. She was about the size of a football when she was all curled up. I remember thinking that she was an angel because that's what dad told us was growing inside mom. She honestly looked like a baby doll and the incubator was the box.

"Ze gaat goed, rechts Alex zijn?" I asked my brother if she was going to be alright.

"Ik weet het niet." Alex told me that he didn't know, he didn't look away from her even a little bit. "Ze is klein." He said that she was small.

At some point the doctor came back in and didn't notice Alex and I. He sat on the edge of the bed and put his hand on my mother's knee in sympathy. I went to ask a question but Alex's hand clapped over my mouth and he holds a finger to his lips.

"De heer en mevrouw Van Halen, ik heb slecht nieuws. Je dochter is te zwak, er is een goede kans dat ze het niet zal maken door de nacht." The English equivalent to that phase is: Mr and Mrs van Halen, I have some bad news. Your daughter is too weak, there's a good chance that she won't make it through the night.

That was the first time I ever saw my father breakdown and cry, it confused me for a minute before everything kicked in. My dad was this amazing musician who could go on stage and play in front of masses of people but here he is crying. If my father taught me anything in his life, he taught me that it takes a real man to shed tears.

Everyone around me bursted into tears, Alex, my mother, my father, my grandmother, that's when the severity of the situation hit me. This little angel in a glass box could die and never grow up to be happy and healthy. That's when I started to cry.

Crying was most of what we did for that whole day but none of us got a lot of sleep for the new week, it was really touch in go. Katie got stronger everyday and by some miracle she survived. She beat every single odd.

Katie's full name is Kathleen Floyd Van Halen. Her middle name was my father's choice, when she was born the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion was an American boxer name Floyd Patterson. That is her middle name because she fought her way through being born one pound two ounces.

I couldn't hold her until she was four months old and she was the size of a newborn. They sat me in a chair between Alex's legs and placed her in my arms. Katie was still small and defenceless. Alex kept looking over my shoulder at Katie and that was the picture that still to this day hangs in our living room. At some point my father looked down at me and my older brother and smiled.

"Alexander, Edward, je bent nu allebei grote broers. Grote broers altijd de bescherming van hun eigen, dus uit wat. Jullie Beloof me dat je je zusje zal beschermen." He said: Alexander, Edward, you are now both big brothers. Big brothers always protect their own, so matter what. You boys promise me that you will protect your little sister.

"Ja, papa. We beloven." We promised him.

Katie was and is small there's no two ways about it. She's maybe five foot two of she's lucky and I know she doesn't break a hundred pounds. Katie is an adult and works in a bar but every time I look at her it's like looking down at that four month old baby that looked to be a newborn. I promised my dad twenty two years ago that I'd never let anything happen to her and I'd always protect her. No matter how old she gets Katie will always be my little sister and I will always protect her.

"--that means that we're not going to let her get hurt by some blond, Barbie doll looking singer." Alex concludes and I know he just told the whole story.

Vince Neil is an amazing singer but he's not going to get into Katie's pants if I have anything to say about it.