My sister's birthday is today. She passed away on the 30th of last month, so she didn't quite finish her 72nd trip around the sun. She went by Lynne (her middle name) for the last several decades. She became Say to me when I was a toddler and couldn't say her nickname from her youth (Rusty).
I decided shortly after she passed to start sharing memories on her birthday. Maybe one for each trip around the sun (including the partial = 72), or maybe until I reach the number of the day of her birth (28). I still haven't decided. Maybe I'll go until I realize I've run out of memories.
The first memory is from 36 or 37 (possibly 35) years ago today.
I was home from college for the summer. Or I was home for the weekend while living in Liberty during the summer in college. Either way, she'd come over to the house and when she saw me she asked if I was going to wish her a happy birthday.
"It's not your birthday," I said, a bit indignantly.
She returned my indignant tone with interest, assuring me it was her birthday.
I replied that nobody in our family has a birthday in June... well, the immediate family, anyway.
And as I was thinking through my siblings and my birthdays... two in January, one in April, one in May, one in July, one in August, one in September... 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 7. I was short one.
How did I not know her birthday? She was like a second mother to me, being about 15 1/2 years my senior.
So that was the day I cemented her birthday in my brain. She would have been in her mid-thirties, which is so odd to me, having passed those by a couple of decades ago myself.
Anyway, not a huge memory, but an appropriate one for today.
Love you and miss you, Say.
No comments:
Post a Comment