In the midst of so much excitement over my second novel being released, it is most definitely tempered by this day. March 24th in the 2015th year marks two years passing since our little sister was so brutally taken from us and from this world. Her murderer sits, incarcerated yes, but not yet charged-locked in our, what I consider lacking, justice system in California. I realize that in the end, God is the ultimate judge and will lay down His law with this man and many others of his ilk. That doesn’t stop me from wanting justice here on earth too.

I know my siblings will place flowers on Cathy’s grave this day, gathering together, with the rest of us farther away but still in their midst, to remember her as the amazing woman she was: a fighter for the underdog, a lover of beauty-especially the ocean which always drew her, courageous and faithful, quirky and fun, a compassionate healer and doggedly stubborn! She may be rolling her eyes, even now, in heaven.

I feel her spirit on my wind-swept plains this day, and in the blue sky and the green tinged grasses beginning to awake to spring. She isn’t here to read my novels, but a childhood spent sharing a room and protecting each other, brings her in to everything I write.

I miss her.