Had to cut our stepdad Mark out of this photo because he was making a goofball face, and it wasn't pretty. Photo from about 14 years ago, maybe.
My youngest sister Kim has been gone for a few years (4 1/2?) and it's still just as hard. We miss other loved ones we've lost in recent years, and cats, too, but this loss hits us the most because she was so young and vibrant and lovely until she got very sick, and because her son was left behind (and our mom, too).
Every time that we go to the health food store she used to go to, and pass the place where she lived, it's always hard. I come close to crying, or actually do cry, just seeing organic vegetables and other things she would've bought.
Yesterday we were at that store, me almost crying, trying not to, and then this morning I am crying. It's all too much to bear, sometimes. I know that anyone who has lost someone very precious to them will understand what I am saying.
I wish I could tell you anything at all to heal the pain, but there really is no remedy. It's just pain that will linger, I'm sorry to say. We just try to "keep calm and carry on." It's the life that we now know.