Sometimes life goes along without incident and we tend to take our good fortune for granted. We are six siblings in my family and we have been fortunate that we still have each other and we have never had to deal with the death of a brother or sister. I realize now I have taken this for granted and trusted that we would all be together for a long time to come.
There is an almost twenty year span between the first three siblings and the last three. I am from the younger three. So why would it not have ever occurred to me that I could lose one of my brothers or sisters? There have been serious illnesses in our family which we have dealt with, but I still always assumed we had many years together ahead of us. Most of us keep in close contact with each other and are close. I think we have never stopped to appreciate that it won’t always be like this.
That changed last week. While I was on holidays, I received a text that my oldest brother was in the hospital and was being scheduled for emergency quadruple by-pass surgery. It finally struck me, all those thousands of miles away, that there won’t always be the six of us. And while we speak to each other on the phone and get together often, I have rarely told my siblings the important things I want them to know. Do they know how much I love them? Do my older brothers and sister know how I looked up to them when I was growing up? Do they know what an impact they had on my life? Are they aware that it was fun having them as brothers and sister while we, the younger family, grew up with their children? Do they understand the reason we are so close to their children is because our brothers and sister were so important to us and so an expanded family circle was created? I have never told my youngest sister how excited I was when Mom brought her home and how I suffered right along with her watching her cope with an illness even the medical community knew little about. Does my younger brother know how sorry I am that we were apart all the years he was away working?
I’ve come to realize how important it is to just tell loved ones how you feel. I am fortunate enough to have people to love. I am blessed that I still have the opportunity to tell them. I will no longer take that for granted. Having brothers and sisters you love, and having the opportunity to tell them . . . it’s a good thing.
There is an almost twenty year span between the first three siblings and the last three. I am from the younger three. So why would it not have ever occurred to me that I could lose one of my brothers or sisters? There have been serious illnesses in our family which we have dealt with, but I still always assumed we had many years together ahead of us. Most of us keep in close contact with each other and are close. I think we have never stopped to appreciate that it won’t always be like this.
That changed last week. While I was on holidays, I received a text that my oldest brother was in the hospital and was being scheduled for emergency quadruple by-pass surgery. It finally struck me, all those thousands of miles away, that there won’t always be the six of us. And while we speak to each other on the phone and get together often, I have rarely told my siblings the important things I want them to know. Do they know how much I love them? Do my older brothers and sister know how I looked up to them when I was growing up? Do they know what an impact they had on my life? Are they aware that it was fun having them as brothers and sister while we, the younger family, grew up with their children? Do they understand the reason we are so close to their children is because our brothers and sister were so important to us and so an expanded family circle was created? I have never told my youngest sister how excited I was when Mom brought her home and how I suffered right along with her watching her cope with an illness even the medical community knew little about. Does my younger brother know how sorry I am that we were apart all the years he was away working?
I’ve come to realize how important it is to just tell loved ones how you feel. I am fortunate enough to have people to love. I am blessed that I still have the opportunity to tell them. I will no longer take that for granted. Having brothers and sisters you love, and having the opportunity to tell them . . . it’s a good thing.
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