When I was in the fourth grade....

...we moved from a small town in Eastern Oregon to a (somewhat) larger town in Western Oregon.

My brother, K, who is five years older than me, immediately fell in love with a local girl named T. She had a sister my age. We all became great friends and both families got along very well. I think I spent as much time at their house as I did at my own house.

K & T got married shortly after graduation and K joined the Navy. They lived in Florida for a while, then K got out of the Navy and they moved back to Oregon. There was a lot of on again/off again romance there.

I lived with them for aprt of my Junior year in high school. Then lived with T again after I graduated. By this time, the split had become permanent. But my house had been robbed and T was alone with two little boys.

After a few months, I joined the Navy and I only saw T a couple times after that.

Shortly after I moved out, T got sick. She had to have a total hysterectomy. She just seemed to recover from that and she started getting sick again.

They found cancer in her lymph nodes. She was sick for a long time and then went into remission. She was in remission for years. Then it would come back, then go away.

This last time, it did not go away. I received notice this morning that T has two weeks to live. She has Non-Hodgkins type Lymphoma.

I have lost grandparents in the past. But they were in their 90's. I've never lost someone I was close to. I'm not sure how I am going to explain this to my children who only just met T a few years ago.

Make sure you hug everyone you love today. And tell them you love them. Even if you have to do it via cyberspace. At least you will let them know.