This was the year. Of course I thought about it. But I didn’t obsess about it all day. And the day before. And the day after.
What is July 25?
My sister died on July 25, 2003.
So it’s been seven years. And this year was it. I didn’t post about it. Well, I’m posting about it now, after the fact, because it didn’t occur to me to post about it then.
An internet acquaintance of mine recently lost her sister and I wanted so badly to tell her that no matter how awful it it now, it won’t be forever. I didn’t, because it wasn’t what she wanted or needed to hear. I told her I know it’s awful, and nothing I could say could make it better, and that was the simple truth and the best thing I had to say.
Apparently seven years is the magic “not forever” number. Who knew?
It might help that I don’t have anything else to associate the date with. September 16 will never come and go. It’s a scant two days after my eldest son’s birthday. She held on long enough to see him turn six, and that was that. Maybe it will come and go? Maybe it’s just still too soon, too fresh. I still can’t think of her without wanting to cry, my eyes stinging and tearing up. Maybe in 2013 September 16 will come and go and just be another day of celebration in Dorian’s Birthday-Week.
Their deaths are but a blip in the entirety that was their lives- not to say that it was not devastating to those they left behind. This September maybe you can make it more about celebrating all the moments that encompassed her life and the joy it brought to you and your family- and not the one moment of death. <3