My sincere condolences on your loss.
I’m sorry. It is hard.
My younger brother died in an accident this year, and he was the healthiest of our group of 7 siblings. My mom died recently after a long illness. My brother’s death is so much harder to accept. When I see his photo, I always say to myself, “NO, that didn’t happen!” and try to push it out of my mind. Our circle of siblings is broken and it will never be the same. We realize how short life is, how precious those relationships are–and how we sometimes take them for granted.
So many of you have had such heartfelt losses. Oh my gosh.
It certainly does redefine your family when losing siblings. She was a sister, mother, grandmother, aunt. Yes a daughter, but both parents passed.
But she was my peer.
My brother died 8 years ago in his early 40’s from cancer. He was 3 years younger than me. I don’t think I will ever be the same. I feel adult siblings get kind of pushed aside, told we should be helping our parents, the spouses and/or children of our now dead sibling. I still think of him every single day. Unlike any other relationship, you lose your past, present and future when you lose a sibling…
So sorry for you. I lost my sister five years ago and it still hits me. I miss having her to talk about our children, shop and travel. I miss my parents too but I really, really miss my sister.
morrismm, my brother’s death wasn’t a shock; he had been ill for a long time and outlived all the medical predictions by a long time. My relationship with him was often ambivalent but that’s how it can be with siblings since we know all the secrets and lies. Nevertheless, it was a gigantic loss, and I’m sure your sister was too. Take good care of yourself.
My condolences and hugs. I am an only child, so when my parents died there was no one left to share memories. Have no cousins…so I am grateful that I have my little family of six. A dear friend survived lost both her siblings and sister in law in the space of a year. She survived emotionally, but it took time and effort.
I am sorry for your loss, morrismom. I lost my brother suddenly in 2009, at age 45. It was tough on my parents, especially my mom, whose dementia made it difficult for her to understand what had happened. It was tough on his 21-year old daughter, as well as on the four remaining siblings. To be honest, it doesn’t really seem real that he is gone, even after so many years.
I’m so sorry, morrismom. I just lost my Dad and had to call his one surviving sister with the news. She is a wonderful and upbeat person but I know it hit her hard to lose her baby brother. She is the last one now, and feels that. I have one sister and we don’t get to see each other often enough but we love each other. I can’t imagine losing her, how hard that will be…
I am so sorry to hear about your loss. In all of my “worst case scenarios” when my husband was very ill, my imagination put me and my sister facing things together. There’s just something so special in that relationship. I’m glad that you got to experience it.