I miss my sister.

I miss her smile, her hugs, her smell, her laugh, the twinkle in her eye, her tenaciousness to make it on her own. I miss her pride, I miss her loving heart, I miss her bubbly personality, I miss her attitude. I miss how fiercely she loved her family and how much she worried about our mom. I miss how excited she got when she would see her nephews. I miss how intelligent she was - even when she was making stupid mistakes. I miss her and all she was and ever will…

My sister and I were friends on Facebook.

We didn't get to see each other often because of our schedules. I work full-time Monday-Friday, she worked mostly weekends waiting tables. When she worked close to where I live, we saw her every Sunday morning. I would leave her little messages on her Facebook page and send her pictures of the boys. 

At the time those little things were exchanged I never thought I would cherish the virtual words we shared as much as I do right…

I'm a big dreamer. I dream of many things.

Just reading a book will effect my dreams. I read The Hunger Games trilogy early last year and almost every night I dreamt that I was actually in the arena of the games.

I have had dreams of my sister since she has passed. Some of them are good - about us growing up, of her being older than her 23 years with children of her own. Some of them are bad - the things her killer did to her, the pain she went through and I have even dreamt…

My sister, Becky, loved snow.

When she was younger her favorite thing to do in the winter months was to play in the snow. Build an igloo, have a snowball fight, sled down a hill with me and my youngest sister, build the biggest snowman on the block and make beautiful snow angels in the front yard.

As she got older, her favorite thing to do in the winter months was to play with her nephew in the snow and watch the wonderment in his eyes. The same wonderment that she…

Today I woke up angry.

I think I hate these days the most, right now anyway. I think that anger is a useless and dangerous emotion that can completely eat you alive if you allow it. As strongly as I feel this is true, I can't not stop my anger from coming.

I'm angry that my sister was murdered. I'm angry that her killer was someone that she thought loved her.  I'm angry that she suffered so much in her final moments. I'm angry that she didn't leave him when she had the…

I've never written a blog post before but I have heard that it can be very therapeutic. I've recently suffered a great loss and I feel deep down that letting some of what I feel out into the open will be helpful on my journey through grief. So, here we go..

I've been touched by death before. The death of a loved one who had been ill, the death of a loved one who lived to be 92 years old and even the death of a close friend who accidentally overdosed. Never had I ever thought…