Chances are if you’re here, you already know me at least a little bit. A NYC native who gets antsy every few years and moves on to new adventures in new cities. My most recent adventure finds me living down in Baltimore and learning all that Charm City has to offer. However my biggest adventure of all is the catalyst for starting this blog – my solo trip to Italy.
If you want a longer explanation of context, read down below, but the short of it is this – I’ve experienced a lot of loss in the last 14 years, including my sister, with whom I was very close. We were supposed to go to Italy this year for her 45th birthday. I’m going now for both of us.
The longer version –
Some key pieces of context are needed here, especially if you don’t already know me. So, let’s start at the beginning. My dad died very unexpectedly back in 2006. I was devastated. It felt like my world had been torn in half with no possibility for repair. I remember thinking that life could not possibly get worse.
Then, in late 2010 I learned that my mom was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer, just 4 years later. Over the course of 2 years, I watched her suffer horror after horror until she eventually died in 2013 on Valentine’s Day. Devastated, part 2.
An orphan at 35. Can you still be an orphan at that age? Doesn’t matter. That’s how it felt.
This is when an already horrendous story turns just unbelievably cruel. In 2016, on a Tuesday morning like any other, my sister got ready for work, sent me a text about nothing, posted to Facebook about how inspiring Michelle Obama’s DNC speech had been, and then never made it to work. She died before she had the chance. From the same thing that killed my dad so unexpectedly and without warning. We found her lunch already packed in her work bag. That’s how little even she knew about it being her last day.
Partners in Crime
We were incredibly close. To say it never occurred to me this would happen is more than an understatement. I’m single, as was she, and I always imagined we’d end up old ladies living together in our golden years, still watching Seinfeld reruns and telling the same old jokes that still made us laugh until we cried.
So, all this brings me to the reason for this blog and for my trip – my sister, Karen, would have turned 45 this year. Her favorite place in the world was Italy. She visited with her high school and studied abroad in Rome for a semester in college. After her 40th birthday, she mentioned she wanted to go back as a celebration of her 45th. I have never been and said I wanted to join her and have her show me all around. In return, we decided we would go to Paris, my favorite place, for my 45th and I would show her around since she’s never been.
Well, she never made it past 42, let alone 45. But I am still here. And I still want to go to Italy, a place that she loved so much and made her so happy. So I’m going. Alone. But I plan to tell her all about this, my biggest adventure, through postcards on this site.
So, I hope you enjoy following along with me. I hope it will be a celebration of Karen and our close relationship. Finally, I hope you get to know both her and my parents through these posts. It feels like a good way to keep them alive.
Postcards to My Sister 