12/30/2023 0 Comments Wordtohelp![]() Later, in college, where no one knew me or what had happened, I found it easier to lie about being an only child than to communicate the clunky but simple truth: I once had a sister but now I don’t. It was such an innocuous question for some, but so loaded for me. In the months after my sister’s suicide, every time someone casually asked me if I had siblings - on first dates during college admission interviews in the grocery store in the middle of an otherwise average day - I would wince. It took us years to accept that she had taken her life, and even longer to put the experience into words. It might have been easy to deduce what had happened, but grief defies reason. She was 22 years old and had been struggling with her mental health and the effects of a traumatic brain injury for several years. 8, 2014, security cameras captured footage of my sister walking to the peak of Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Bridge and not returning. When it came to my turn, I panicked and said, “I’m an only child.” The words tasted sour in my mouth. One by one, my classmates shared anecdotes about their brothers and sisters. I was 17 and my sister, Kait, had been missing, presumed deceased, for only a few days. Numb with grief, I almost laughed at the cruel timing. Our teacher asked us to describe one of our siblings as a class bonding exercise. The first time I lied about my sister, I was sitting in a semicircle in my high school homeroom study hall.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |