Why didn't his brother handle it?
You mean, why didn't his wife (the older sister of the girl) handle it? I'm sure she had a rolling-pin or something handy.
By the way, sir, do you know why the National Review web-site was so fouled up these past several weeks? They hired a new webmaster, I guess, but it was not until yesterday (Tuesday) that the site was back into shape, meaning one missed out on about three weeks of good reading.