Why I run: Marathon #10 | FRED'S TEAM:
Another April 27th. The day that would have been my sister Lindsay's birthday, but is now a very different day.
In another version of this story, this April 27th could have started with a midnight sleepy phone call, with faltering notes into a somewhat screamed symphony of that Happy Birthday tune. It could have been a day filled with conspiring-- maybe with a husband, or a partner-- to make a surprise that I would inevitably fail to keep secret. Maybe weeks of stressing about which book, what concert tickets, would she have even liked a spa gift certificate? Lots of reminders that she is now entering into her mid-late 30's, she would be quick to remind me I wasn't far behind.
There would be a party. I would come late off a train from NYC. My parents would come, and the looks on their faces would be only pride and love. The years of sadness, just a blip on the radar--because she had survived. Or maybe the ocean of loss that clouds our threesome would have never come in to shore, and we made out--simply normal. Simply asking for a table for four, and a whisper to the hostess that a celebration was upon them.
April 27th could have just been my sister's birthday. But in this version of the narrative, it's not. So here we are again. Another April 27th, another marathon, another year without this day, and our bellies, filled with birthday cake and another year gone by without my sister. But as long as I can still run and blow out my birthday candles, I'm going to run for those who can't. Please donate to my run for a world with more sisters: