In March, one of our childhood friends died suddenly of cancer. She was
only 44 and we didn't even know she had cancer. Karen had spoken with
her a few months before and she was fine. Then an email came from her
sister saying she'd died.
She was the type of friend who never said things like but he's your dad
or be nice or you should just trust people more. She knew. A friend
like that is hard to come by. She was artistic and poetic and fearless.
She was a feminist who wrote anti-war poetry, loved makeup, said fuck
a lot and she helped us both into our wedding dresses on our wedding
days. And, she loved her sister and her sister loved her.
I re-read the email from her sister over and over and thought about how sad it must be for her. Karen and I went back and forth saying how awful, can you imagine? but the thing is I could imagine because
my own sister was suddenly cancery. I wanted to cry, eat, and throw up
all at the same time. Lucky for me, my sister is still very much alive.
After Karen found out about her stupid cancer and I was going to make sure we weren't getting a two for one special, for a second I thought wow what a wake up call, but then I took that thought back. We're pretty awake! We don't even really sleep with both eyes closed. I started to write about being awake a few weeks ago* and while searching for an old post I wrote, I saw one of my twitter posts about how life doesn't get any better than sharing fried macaroni and cheese balls with your seester and then it hit me. If I were a loyal reader of a blog about two seesters and one of them got cancer and the other one was saying things like that, I'd be texting Karen going Oh my Buddha, did you see that the ball attracting sister is having macaroni with the cancer sister? How saaaaaad. I am fucking CRYING!!!
You guys are amazing. Thanks for sticking with us! These have been stressful times and we both appreciate the outpouring of love and support you have shown to both of us. Thank you for everything you have done to make the last few months so much easier for us~ the cards, the emails, the funny comments, the gifts, the thoughts and prayers and wishes. We are full of gratitude.
*that post will be coming soon.
The Sometimes print is available in my shop.
