Echoes

It was 71F here yesterday, and is supposed to snow tomorrow. I know exactly what Katie would say: "On average, the weather is about normal for this time of year!"

The other day I came across a box of foil sheets from Price Club (OK, "Costco", but we still call it Price Club). Being my father's son, I had written the date we opened it on top (so we'd have some idea how long a box lasted):
     02/20/05
Next to the date, in Kt's handwriting:
     2:06PM
Classic.

Four Years

Four years ago today I woke up to a different world. People say that all the time—after 9/11, after an election—and usually it's not really true. And it wasn't true that day for most people, but for a small set of us, it most certainly was. The day before had been a normal fall day, cool, partly cloudy, and blustery; now it was cold, dark, and menacing. I stumbled out of bed that morning and stared into the bathroom mirror, wondering whether this was real.

Well, it wasn't a dream. And here we are, 1462 days later. Thanks to Facebook, we've had the pleasure of watching most of Katie's friends go on to great things: graduation, jobs, love, marriage. And this is great to see, despite the obvious “What ifs” that arise.

My sister wrote, “It doesn’t get any easier to believe”, and that's precisely accurate. But we persist, and remember her in our hearts, now and forever.