Missing My Sister...On Her Birthday

 It's strange how you cannot know the future, no matter what some may say or think. In May of last year, we gathered as a family at the cemetery, a tradition we've done every year for decades. We didn't know a year later, instead of visiting just my parent's graves, we'd be visiting my sister's grave, too.

Today's her birthday, the first those of us left behind will experience without her. 

In the little more than a half century I've been on this planet, I've lost parents, cousins, uncles, aunts, close friends, and now a sibling. I know dying as as much a part of life as being born, but it's strange still on this side while others are on the other.

It's a new reality for our family, spouse missing a spouse, children missing a mother, grandkids missing a grandma, friends missing a friend, brothers missing a sister. 

We began with five of us, dad, mom, and three little kids. We lost our patriarch shortly after we three kids joined the group. We then went more than thirty years before we had to plan a funeral. In those thirty-plus years, we never knew when our visit to the cemetery would be the same or different from year to year.

It's my sister's birthday today. We are missing her today, as we have since she passed. And we'll continue missing her every single day.