Substance

A year ago today, my brother-in-law was killed by a very, very careless driver.

In the last year, my sister has taught everyone who knows her what it means to have substance. The kind that keeps you going when your world has dissolved and collapsed into foam where there used to be firm ground.

My sister has not only kept going. She has kept loving those around her, and she has appreciated life, full blast. She has moved forward one stunningly difficult day at a time while still somehow providing the same high levels of generosity and kindness and warmth that she's always given. She has helped her kids travel through the odd new days of absence, and they have helped her. She has taken on such a burden of pain and carried it in a way I could never imagine myself doing. I've watched her when she thinks I'm not watching her, and I've learned about substance.