Yesterday morning I was writing a check and I wrote down the date. 11\/9\/10. \u00a0I had this strange feeling that the date was important. \u00a0I did a quick mental inventory of birthdays and anniversaries and came up with nothing. \u00a0A few minutes later I gave up and went about my hectic day. \u00a0It wasn’t until a conversation with my father at the end of the day that I figured it out. \u00a0Thirty seven years ago on November 9th my sister passed away. \u00a0Noel lived just a few short weeks past her first birthday. \u00a0I never knew her…but in some strange way I feel like I did.<\/p>\n
My father talked to me and to both of my brothers yesterday but they were not conversations of sadness. \u00a0It was more of a remembrance of love. \u00a0We are not a family of grave sitters. \u00a0While her remains may be at the cemetery, we feel that Noel is not really there<\/em>. \u00a0She lives on a little in each of us.<\/p>\n Noel’s life has never been a secret to me. \u00a0There are pictures of her in frames around the house and dolls that belonged to her and then to me. There was no big family meeting during which her existence was “revealed”. \u00a0She has always been and always will be a part of our family.<\/p>\n Even though Noel’s life ended before mine began, I have always felt an ethereal connection to her. \u00a0I am not ashamed to admit that I have shed tears many times during my life because I longed to know her. \u00a0Would we have looked alike? \u00a0Acted alike? \u00a0Had similar handwriting? \u00a0Walked a comparable path in life? \u00a0Had like taste in friends or clothes? \u00a0Would I even be here if she had lived? \u00a0It is a great mystery for me. \u00a0It sounds like I spend a lot of time thinking about Noel but, like it or not, that is not true. I usually remember her on her birthday each year. \u00a0I don’t know why this time was different. \u00a0I don’t have an explanation for that tinge of familiarity yesterday morning. \u00a0Regardless, she is now on my mind.<\/p>\n I do often wonder how my parents dealt with her death. \u00a0Medicine wasn’t so modern then and her condition was not curable. \u00a0They had no choice but to accept her fate. \u00a0It is not lost on me that if medicine wasn’t so advanced as it is now, my daughter Laura would not be with us. \u00a0I cannot even bear that thought. \u00a0Now that I am a parent I realize that our time with our children under our wing is so very short. \u00a0My oldest daughter was born and before I could turn around she turned 9. \u00a0Where has the time gone? Have I impressed upon my children just how important they are to me? One can only hope.<\/p>\n Now it is the 10th and the anniversary of Noel’s death has passed by again. She had a large impact on our little family and we are all lucky, whether in reality or in our dreams, to have known her…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday morning I was writing a check and I wrote down the date. 11\/9\/10. \u00a0I had this strange feeling that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7,9],"tags":[211],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children","category-parenting","category-random-thoughts","tag-noel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":403,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions\/403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annakatedonovan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}