LOSS
I Lost My Sister For Good Today
Her ghost is gone now, too
It’s taken me months to confirm my suspicion, but I finally called this morning. I am, in fact, dead to her. One text I sent in February, misinterpreted, is all it took.
The woman who answered and told me I “pissed her off” was not my real sister. She died nearly five years ago while watching her husband depart in the explosion of a massive heart attack. He died the same day our older sister died back in 2006. She was first on the scene then, too.
My sister’s ghost lingered since her husband left, not by choice, but out of fear of hurting her daughters and grandkids. Out of a deep but unwanted sense of duty to our elderly parents, only one of whom remains. She haunts the cemetery every Sunday since the Sunday her husband died, regardless of weather. She wants only to be alone if she cannot be with him.
My sister has always been hard to reach. An introvert to my somewhat extroverted self. But we used to be much closer despite my fleeing our small Kansas town for college, then a life in California. We called each other. She cried to me sometimes when life with her beloved second husband got hard as they blended their families.
She used to ask about my life, and would listen. She is older by two years and often…
