Sad News

It's strange how many different ways you can be sad all at the same time.  

My youngest sister, Diana, passed away from breast cancer yesterday.

I'm sad that someone so young should die.   I'm sad that her wonderful husband and three sweet young children are left without a wife and mother.

I'm also sad that I never knew my sister very well.  She was 10 years younger than I am and lived over 2000 kms away from where I do.  I got married when she was 12 years old.  It was hard to bridge the gap.

She was adopted into our family when she was not quite 2 years old.  I remember the first night we brought her home.  We put her crib in my room so she would have someone close by her during the night.  I was thrilled to have a little sister sleeping in my room.  When I woke up in the morning she was standing up in her crib holding on to the ribbons I had won at a science fair.  The only ribbons I ever won were being wrinkled in her hands, but it didn't matter as I had a sweet little sister. 

I was like a second mom to her and when she was young she would often hang around with me trying to do what I did.   I remember in high school she would sit on my bed colouring and chattering away while I studied and did homework.

She met and married a wonderful man from Winnipeg and they lived there for most of the 20 years they were married.  Diana loved the prairies and loved living in Winnipeg.  She had three children - 2 girls and a boy - of whom she was enormously proud.  She liked nothing more than to go on outings or camping with them.

 Diana when she was about 5 years old,  in the  foreground, with my other sister and brother

Diana and I led sort of parallel lives - we both got married when we were 22 years old, we both finished our Master's degrees after we were married, we both had 3 children, and our eldest children are almost exactly 10 years apart in age.

Yet she and I were very different people as adults.  She was a political animal with strong opinions on politics, unions, and native rights.  She worked for the government helping make policy and later worked to help make changes in education and rights for natives.  She found great satisfaction from having a job and worked when her children were babies while her husband stayed home and cared for them.  She encouraged her children to appreciate their first nations heritage. 

 Me when I was 20 and Diana at 10 years of age

It's funny how little incidental endearing memories flood my mind right now.  I loved Diana's walk - she had this self-confident stride just like Meg Ryan's walk in "You've Got Mail".  Diana enjoyed good food and wine and she is the one that taught me to put feta cheese in spaghetti and on pizza.  That's my favourite way to have it now and I always think of her when I do it.  She loved the show "The Dog Whisperer" with Cesar Millan and she gave me the best advice about how to train Juno.  We would always laugh that I was getting my best dog advice from someone who was afraid of dogs. 

Diana and I in Winnipeg this past May

I'll be heading out to Winnipeg later this week so I can join the family for a memorial service.  I have to say I've never been to Winnipeg so often as I have in this past year.