... and they don't stop coming.
Time is relentless.
Time is aggressive and unforgiving.
But it is also a beautiful gift.
A lot has happened since I last wrote to you. It took me a while to be ok to be sharing the news I have to share.
Vikki died just before Christmas. I tried to get there to say goodbye, but it was not meant to be.
She left much in the same way you did. No warning. No way to be prepared. No way to shelter my heart before. Full frontal assault. More sibling loss grief.
It turns out that Vikki knew that she was ill but decided not to share that info, which is fine, I can't be mad at her for just trying to live her life in the way she needed too. But I struggle to reconcile the plans we had and the future that we looked forward to. Just like I did with you, I thought that we had many years yet to share together. I made the mistake again of trusting time. It's hard not too.
I know you have dream walked with Kate, it's lovely to know that you are still visiting when you can.
Auntie Vi also died, she passed last summer peacefully. It wasn't unexpected of course, given that she had reached the ripe old age of 96... but I was not prepared for it. My heart refused to consider it when I tried to broach the subject, so I just had to face it as it happened. Which was hard. For me, Auntie Vi was always my favourite Auntie, but for many years much more of a mother to me than our own mother was. But I found saying good bye to her was a bit like losing everyone - Nana and Poppy, Dad, Uncle Ron. She had kind of kept all of them alive for me, held all those memories and stories and while I am grateful for her life and my time in it, I was very sad to see her go.
