I am distracted and pensive and sad today. It is my sister Kim's birthday. She would have been fifty-five.This is the weekend, a year ago, when everything changed and we could see time running out on her five-year, stage-four lung cancer prognosis. Me and my family raced home to take care of her and help out my overwhelmed brother-in-law. It soon become a dark time and darker still, but I will always be grateful I could be there for her with my other sister, the health-care pro in her element, my brother-in-law, my nieces, and my parents as well.
Kim always believed in my writing, even a giant-bug-themed story I penned in high school. I set the piece at local Camp Kagama. As my protagonist tries to evacuate the camp because of the insectile invasion, another character makes an offhanded reference to my sister, the staff nurse, making out with a cute camp counselor.
(My writing has improved markedly since.)
I am dedicating my short-story collection, Fear Itself, coming out November 15, to Kim.
