June (#)4

Last June I took a bunch of pictures of flowers on Susie’s birthday.

I promise I won’t do this often, but this week brings another repost of a previous essay. I’ve been SO sick this week! I honestly don’t think I’ve been this sick in decades—even when I had COVID, I had to take a test to confirm the virus had reached me despite all my attempts to thwart it, because otherwise I wouldn’t have known I was sick at all. My doctor thinks it might be a sinus infection, but all I know is I’ve barely been able to move in between sneezing, blowing my nose, coughing and a fatigue that reaches from the top of my head, through all my bones, down to my toes. I was able to sit in my recliner under a blanket and that’s about it.

I was also able to scroll through my social media and it was there that I was reminded recently that is the anniversary of a death, a reminder of another family grieving their daughter, sister, wife, auntie. I went back into my previous posts and found the one I wrote about her after Annie and I attended her funeral. I’m posting it again this year because it’s important to remember our losses, honor our loved ones, give grace to grievers. This girl—and she’ll always be a young girl in my memory—was a part of our family for years, starting as our babysitter for my kids and through sitting next to Annie for their mutual chemo treatments when they were both being treated for cancer at the same time.

This young woman died four Junes ago. It was right around the time Annie was told she was in remission and what would have been my sister’s 61st birthday. (It would only be less than a month later that the “remission” turned into Stage 4.) Days of hope and loss and remembrance. But, as I get older, I think that’s what all our days are, aren’t they?

See you next week but in the meantime, I hope you all are doing okay and if not, you should let someone know. Or me—you can always reach me. xo

Speaking of grief . . . I have an online writing group that meets twice a month to write, talk and share about how we’re all handling these losses in our lives. If you’d like more information, please contact me or visit my website by clicking below.