Hi, Sis! I’ve missed you all these years! Where have you been? Well, you’ve always been in my heart. You tore it out for a while when you left us, it was too painful to think about you… so I forgot. Until I saw the pictures in Mom’s trove of images. You’re still there. You never left.

I worried about you when I saw you way back in 1999, but there wasn’t much I could do. I only discovered about Bipolar Disorder after my SIL was diagnosed. But I want you to know that you helped her. We lost you, but we managed to help our SIL just a few short years later.

To stand by your grave, to watch your burial traumatized me to the extent I couldn’t even remember where the grave was. I don’t remember much about that time, perhaps that’s a good thing. It helps to minimize my sense of loss. It shouldn’t have been that way. But it was. Please forgive me, sis, for putting thoughts of you aside.

One day, I’ll write you an email; and I’ll send it to you, too. Not today. But this is a start. In the meantime, May God Bless You, and Hold You In Her Arms. May She Surround you with Love and Protect you. Always.