She fought a good fight (everyone dies)

 I lost my baby sister on May 19th.  She was ten years younger than me. It just seems too young...

A few years ago, she was diagnosed with stage 4 cervical cancer.  At that time, they gave her a 40% chance of beating it. My sister was a fighter though. She had a strong will to live so she went through the months of chemo and radiation treatments and eventually she was declared cancer free. What they didn't tell her was the damage that radiation would end up causing and ultimately that was what killed her.  For the last year she was in constant excruciating pain as her insides basically ripped apart.  I could go into the details of all the surgeries she had over the last year and all the tubes she had coming out of her, but I will spare you.   I just know that in the end she made the decision that she did not want any more medical interventions and she went home to die which she did, peacefully in the arms of my niece, her daughter who has been such an angel throughout this whole ordeal, never leaving her mama's side and taking care of all her needs for the last year or so.  I hate that I lost my sister. I hate that she had to suffer so much for so long. I hate that I did not get to see her. I was supposed to go up to Tennessee in July.   I am still going to visit my niece, but I had hoped to see my baby sister one last time.  With my responsibilities here with my grandkids, I was unable to go any sooner.  And she understood. We did do a lot of video chatting even up until the day before she passed.  

She was such a cool little sister.  I was thinking about a time many years ago when she decided to open up a cafe, a burger joint to be exact.  She called it the Hellion Cafe and she served Hellion burgers, which were huge!  Way more than I could eat for sure. I asked her where she came up with that name and she said she named it after her two boys because they were little hellions.  Unfortunately, the name of that little place drew real "hellions" as it was frequented by biker gangs in that area of South Carolina.  After a while it became a bit much for her to handle so she closed up shop and shortly after moved to Tennessee where she went to work in a nursing home which was quite a bit calmer than the Hellion Cafe 🤣

About four years ago she and my niece came down here to visit me. She loved the beach, so we went to the beach every day that week.  She loved to fish, but she had never fished in the ocean, so this was her first time.  My niece loved to fish too, and she caught a few fish one right after the other.  My sister just sat there watching her and I asked her why she wasn't fishing.  She said she was waiting till the right time and that she was going to catch a shark.  Well sure enough, the first fish she caught was a shark, albeit a quite small one.  I thought that was pretty cool.

She also loved nature, hiking, and camping in the woods of Tennessee near her home. She knew all about wild edible plants and even mushrooms.  Something I would be scared of even trying because I would be the one to eat poison ones LOL.  

Over this past year she has been unable to do all these things she loved, and I know that was part of the reason she gave up the fight.

Anyway, this along with a couple of other things that life has thrown at me is the reason I have not posted anything for a while.  

I hate that she is gone, but I am glad she is not suffering anymore.  

Rest in Peace baby sister. I will see you on the flip side. 

💕❤️💕