Today is the day my sister Helen was born.  1960.  She died in 2010.  I wrote about it here.

Birthdays always strike me as a puzzling thing.  Celebrating the passage of one rotation around the sun just seems odd to me.  I get that we like to mark the passage of time, so as a marker then I guess that’s what we’re left with.

In any case, that’s not why I’m writing right now.

I’m writing about my sister who is no longer with us.

I miss her.

We didn’t see each other a lot in the last 10 years.  But in years past I frequently dropped into her house in Ballarat on my many trips to and from Melbourne.  Sometimes just for a cuppa, sometimes for a meal.

I had a relationship with her two children, my nephew and niece.  I kept up to date with the latest in their lives.  We spoke on the phone often.

Then I got married, had my own family, moved to Melbourne and saw much less of her.

I miss her because she’s just not here any more.

I think of her often, but on her birthday I know that I’m not going to make a phone call or send a silly card or send that email.

It doesn’t matter how many times we fling around the sun, I won’t forget.

Happy birthday Helen.

http://youtu.be/a96RZURNtII