Today marks the 14th anniversary of my sister Mary's death. On January 2nd, 1998, she and five others died in an avalanche while back country skiing in Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park. Today I went for a long walk on the beach and thought about Mary as I always do on this day. As I reflect back to that time, tears spring easily to my eyes when I remember the shock and disbelief that this could have happened only eight months after my brother John died of cancer. It is astonishing to me that fourteen years have gone by; that somehow we survived this terrible grief, the unimaginable sadness, and have gone on to live our lives. I remember thinking that I couldn't possibly live without my sister. My sister who was devoted to my children, spending much of her free time as a teenager playing with them and looking after them. She spent many nights at our house, sleeping over and then going to school in the morning. She was more than my sister...she was a great companion, a true friend, a second mother to Sarah, Robbie and James whom she adored, and they her. To this day, I wonder what it would have been like if she were still alive. Would she be married? How many children would she have? Where would she be living? So many unanswered questions. So many years not lived.
The amazing thing is, I still remember the sound of her voice, her laugh - oh how we laughed! I remember her smile, her energy, her touch. She lives on in my memory - and remains always beautiful, young, with everything to live for.
I don't think I will ever forget any of those things.
Thank God.
