I Miss Her

I wanted to do this post on Friday, but was so slammed with work that it wasn't an option.

These adorable cutie pie baby pics are of me, my cousin Renee, and my cousin April. Renee died October 17, 1995, almost three months after Missy was born. Renee was 22 years old. She had cancer.


She was just a wonderful person. She was friendly, caring, and nurturing. She had just obtained her bachelors degree in speech therapy the June before she died. She knew she had cancer, but I don't think she knew how bad it was, but I will never really know. Maybe she did know, and just chose to keep going to school and being silly ol Renee.
Renee was a health nut. She was a vegetarian, a marathon runner, a volleyball player, and never smoked. Yet she got cancer. How fair is that?
She was never engaged. Never got married. Never had children. Never got to use that degree. She was beautiful, and kind, and I miss her SO VERY MUCH. She was less than two years older than me, and we grew up having a blast together.
She was so breathtakingly beautiful, that we used to joke that she had to be adopted, as she couldn't possibly be related to the rest of us mere mortals. She was tall, about 5 foot 9, with blond curly hair and piercing blue eyes.
I feel her loss acutely on her birthday, July 31, on holidays, and most especially on October 17, the day I lost one of my best friends, 13 years ago.