17 Years Ago Today

Sisters may share the same mother and father but appear to come from different families
                                                                                ~Unknown

Some of you may think this is a sad story, but I just wanted to share the story of my sister as a way of remembering her.  Awhile back, I mentioned in one of my postings that I would tell the story of my sister in another post.  Well, this is the post...

College Graduation Photo

It's so hard to believe that my sister died 17 years ago on this date.  I don't know where the time has gone.  Don't you sometimes wish we could slow the march of time down just a notch or two?

Marilyn on Left & Skinny Me on Right

There was just the two of us growing up with me being four years older than her.  Marilyn was the brainy one is school.  She made the National Honor Society and I didn't even come close to doing so.  I was the talkative one and more outgoing than her.  Growing up, we were as close as sisters could be; but we were also so different.  In addition to being the brainy one, she was more sophisticated in the way she dressed and in the way she did things; whereas I was no more sophisticated than a kid playing in a park.  I was the DIY kind of person, coming up with all kinds of creative ways to sew, paint, wallpaper and anything else you could name; and I would try it.  Marilyn never painted or stained, but would pay to have someone do it instead.  As the baby of the family, she always asked for, and usually received, items or things I wouldn't have dared to ask our parents for.  Anyways, we both went off to college.  I ended up getting married, teaching, and having a family.  After she graduated, she became a flight attendant.  We both loved to travel, but as a flight attendant, she really travelled!  One of her favorite locations was Greece.  

Marilyn On One Of Her Many Travels

Marilyn eventually became sick and had to have a few surgeries.  She decided to leave the airline industry, went back to school and got her Masters Degree in International Financial Management.  Along the way, she came very close to getting married, but never did.  In the photo below, she had decided to buy this gown for an upcoming wedding, but things didn't work out and she broke it off.  She would have made a beautiful bride, but I'm so happy she didn't marry that guy...

Deciding On This Gown

Long story short, she eventually opened up her own business, Marilyn's International Bakery in Phoenix, AZ, where she was living with our parents.

On A Charter Fishing Boat With Our Oldest Son

Around the same time as she was working on her business plan and getting her business started, she started having more and more falls, where her one leg would just give out.  She went to doctors and had tests after tests and everything would come back as normal.  After a couple of years of this, she called me one day and told me she thought she might have ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease).  The internet was just taking off around this time and neither of us had it yet.  But she managed to do some research and came up with her own diagnosis.  I didn't know anything about this disease, other than it was a death sentence.  In the meantime, I found out some information about an ALS support group and passed it on to her.  She eventually was diagnosed with ALS.  To this day, there are no tests that will specifically say you have this disease.  All the doctors can do is to rule out everything else.

Photo For Her Business Brochure

ALS is a neuromuscular disease which has different kinds of progressions.  In her case, it took two years to diagnose and she died two years later.  I even joined our local chapter in Grand Rapids and helped out however I could.  Ask me what you want to know about it, and I'll probably be able to answer you.  Seriously, not much has changed in these 17 years.  ALS is an automatic death sentence and it's a horrible disease.   

Last Trip To France, Visiting Monet's House & Gardens

She decided to take a couple more trips.  One was to France.  She had minored in French and loved the country; and the other was to Hyannis Port and Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.

Photo I found a few years after her death

I spent an entire month in Arizona helping my mother and sister.  I was able to go home for a few weeks before I got the call from Hospice to come back ASAP.  After she died, it took my mother five more years of convincing her to move from Arizona to be near me.   Marilyn was only 46 years old!