Pastor entertains his siblings during pandemic with riddles

The Rev. Eric Brown really thought he had stumped his six younger siblings a couple weeks ago.

“Oh no, they’re not getting this one,” he said confidently and with a chuckle just moments after filming a short video of him asking a daily riddle for the group and sending it to his two brothers and four sisters.

The riddle: “What can you keep after giving it to someone else?”

But sister Stephanie Mayfield – who recently earned the nickname “Game Show” for her uncanny ability to solve these daily word puzzles – wasn’t about to let big brother get the best of her.

It took her no more than 10 minutes to figure out the correct answer: “Your word.”

“He was so funny saying, ‘I’m bringing the thunder today,’” Mayfield said, ribbing her eldest sibling in a way that only little sisters can.

And so goes the daily ritual between members of the Brown family.

What started as a silly way for the brothers and sisters to stay connected at the beginning of the pandemic has evolved into a form of sibling rivalry to see who can guess the answers to Eric Brown’s riddles first.

Each weekday morning, siblings in Columbus; Huron,

Ohio; and Colorado eagerly wait for Brown, a 65-yearold pastor, to send his riddle through the video chat app Marco Polo.

“It’s a hoot,” said sister Valerie Whittaker, 56, who lives in Huron in northern Ohio near where the siblings grew up. “I look forward to the riddle each day.”

Mayfield, 61, is actually the one who started the daily riddle contest. One day her mother, who lives with her, received a sheet of riddles with her Meals on Wheels food, and Mayfield forwarded one to the group’s chat. Then, she got busy at work and couldn’t continue to pose the daily puzzles, so her big brother stepped up to become the riddle master.

Now, the family is nearly 300 riddles into its game.

The tight-knit siblings typically see each other regularly, but visits have been few and far between over the past year. So they look forward to each morning between 9:30 and 10 a.m. when big brother tries to stump them with questions such as:

What kind of tables do not have legs? (periodic or multiplication tables)

What’s fluffy, cute, huggable and goes up and down? (a puppy in an elevator)

“It’s so fun listening to everybody throw out answers,” Whittaker said. “It’s been a wonderful way to stay connected during the pandemic.”

‘It’s so fun listening to everybody throw out answers. It’s been a wonderful way to stay connected during the pandemic.’ Valerie Whittaker The Rev. Eric Brown’s sister

DORAL CHENOWETH/COLUMBUS DISPATCH/TNS During the pandemic, the Rev. Eric Brown (center) has shared hundreds of riddles with his six siblings, pictured clockwise from top right column: Valerie Whittaker; Zachary Brown; Suzanne Nelson; Timothy Brown; Tamara Byrd; and Stephanie Mayfield.